Freedom of the press
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Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections.
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- Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
- Without a free press there can be no free society. That is axiomatic. However, freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of a free society. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.
- Felix Frankfurter, New York Times (November 28, 1954).
- The full impact of printing did not become possible until the adoption of the Bill of Rights in the United States with its guarantee of freedom of the press. A guarantee of freedom of the press in print was intended to further sanctify the printed word and to provide a rigid bulwark for the shelter of vested interests.
- Harold Innis, "Industrialism and Cultural Values", in The Bias of Communication (1951), p. 138.
- Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Charles Yancey, (6 January 1816).
- Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. James Currie (28 January 1786) Lipscomb & Bergh 18:ii.
- To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Green Mumford (18 June 1799).
- All over the world, wherever there are capitalists, freedom of the press means freedom to buy up newspapers, to buy writers, to bribe, buy and fake “public opinion” for the benefit of the bourgeoisie.
- Vladimir Lenin, Lenin's Collected Works, Volume 32, pp. 504–509.
- Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.
- A. J. Liebling, in "Do you belong in journalism?", The New Yorker (14 May 1960); sometimes paraphrased : "Freedom of press is limited to those who own one"; sometimes misattributed to H. L. Mencken.
- The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.
- George Mason, Virginia Declaration of Rights, Article 12 (1776).
- We think we have got freedom of the press. When one millionaire has ten newspapers and ten million people have no newspapers—that is not freedom of the press.
- Anastas Mikoyan (January 26, 1959); quoted in "Traveling With Mikoyan Quote By Quote" - Time Magazine.
- If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Address to the National Education Association (30 June 1938).
- Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel lecture prepared for the Swedish Academy, not actually delivered as an address (1970), variant translation, as quoted in TIME (25 February 1974). Another translations is "Woe to that nation whose literature is disturbed by the intervention of power. Because that is not just a violation against "freedom of print", it is the closing down of the heart of the nation, a slashing to pieces of its memory".
- Milne: No matter how imperfect things are, if you've got a free press everything is correctable, and without it everything is concealable.
Ruth: I'm with you on the free press. It's the newspapers I can't stand.- Tom Stoppard, Night and Day (1978), Act I.
- A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people. To allow it to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.
- George Sutherland, Grosjean v. American Press Co., 297 U.S. 233, 250 (1936).
- Freedom of the press is the mortar that binds together the bricks of democracy - and it is also the open window embedded in those bricks.
- Shashi Tharoor, Speech at the UN's World Press Freedom Day (3 May 2001).
[edit] The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904)
- Quotes reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 159-161.
- My opinion of the liberty of the press is, that every man ought to be permitted to instruct his fellow subjects; that every man may fearlessly advance any new doctrines, provided he does so with proper respect to the religion and government of the country; that he may point out errors in the measures of public men; but he must not impute criminal conduct to them.
- Best, J., King v. Burdett (1820), 1 St. Tr. (N. S.) 120.
- The liberty of the press has always been, and has justly been, a favourite topic with Englishmen. They have looked at it with jealousy whenever it has been invaded; and though a licenser was put over the press, and was suffered to exist for some years after the coming of William, and after the revolution, yet the reluctant spirit of English liberty called for a repeal of that law; and from that time to this it has not been shackled and limited more than it ought to be.
- Lord Kenyon, Case of John Lambert and others (1793), 22 How. St. Tr. 1016.
- To be free, is to live under a government by law. The liberty of the -press consists in printing without any previous licence, subject to the consequences of law. The licentiousness of the press is Pandora's box, the source of every evil. Miserable is the condition of individuals, dangerous is the condition of the State, if there is no certain law, or, which is the same thing, no certain administration of law, to protect individuals or to guard the State.
- Lord Mansfield, King v. Shipley (1784), 3 Douglas's Rep. 170.
- Where vituperation begins, the liberty of the press ends.
- Best, J., King v. Burdett (1820), 1 St. Tr. (N. S.) 120.
- The liberty of the press is dear to England; the licentiousness of the press is odious to England: the liberty of it can never be so well protected as by beating down the licentiousness.
- Lord Kenyon, Cuthell's Case (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 674.
- When licentiousness is tolerated, liberty is in the utmost danger; because tyranny, bad as it is, is better than anarchy; and the worst of governments is more tolerable than no government at all.
- Camden, L.C.J., Case of Seizure of Papers (1765), 19 How. St. Tr. 1074.
- The law of England is a law of liberty, and, consistently with this liberty, we have not what is called an imprimatur (let it be printed); there is no such preliminary licence necessary. But if a man publish a paper, he is exposed to the penal consequences, as he is in every other act, if it be illegal.
- Lord Ellenborough, R. v. Cobbett (1804), 29 How. St. Tr. 49.
- A man may publish anything which twelve of his countrymen think not blamable.
- Lord Kenyon, Cuthell's Case (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 675.
- The power of free discussion is the right of every subject of this country. It is a right to the fair exercise of which we are indebted more than to any other that was ever claimed by Englishmen. All the blessings we at present enjoy might be ascribed to it.
- Lord Kenyon, King v. Reeves (1796), Peake's Nisi Prius Cases, 85.
- The liberty of the press is a very great advantage and security to our public liberty.
- Lord Mansfield, The King v. Williams (1774), Lofft. 763.
- The liberty of the press is no greater and no less than the liberty of every subject of the Queen.
- Lord Russell of Killowen, Reg. v. Gray (1900), L. R. 2 Q. B. D. 40.
