Free Press Quotes

• Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Media, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.71, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Reading, Mean, Men

  Letter to Edward Carrington, 16 Jan. 1787

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• The first thing dictators do is finish free press, to establish censorship. There is no doubt that a free press is the first enemy of dictatorship.

  Fidel Castro

  Doubt, Enemy, Firsts

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• No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

  Thomas Jefferson

  4th Of July, Media, Government

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.133, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Fear, Inspiration, Power

  Cited in Heinl, Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (1966).

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• The theory of the free press is not that the truth will be presented completely or perfectly in any one instance, but that the truth will emerge from free discussion

  e. e. cummings

  Truth, Theory, Discussion

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• The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people.

  Hugo Black

  Responsibility, Government, People

  "Strangling the messenger" by Niall Stanage, www.theguardian.com. December 6, 2006.

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• 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

  Book, Land, Media Control

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.418, Best Books on

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• We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech - because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth.

  Barack Obama

  Lying, Freedom Of Speech, Free Speech

  President Barack Obama's remarks to the People of Estonia at the Nordea Concert Hall in Tallinn, Estonia, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. September 3, 2014.

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• The only security of all is in a free press.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom Of The Press, Security, Presses

  Letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 4 Nov. 1823

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• Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

  A. J. Liebling

  Funny, Media Control, Politics

  New Yorker, 14 May 1960

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• A free press is one of the pillars of democracy.

  Nelson Mandela

  Democracy, Pillars, Presses

  Nelson Mandela (1998). “In the Words of Nelson Mandela”, Birch Lane Press

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• Free speech exercised both individually and through a free press, is a necessity in any country where people are themselves free.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, People, Interesting

  Theodore Roosevelt (1954). “The days of Armageddon, 1900-1914”

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• To watch the progress of such endeavors is the office of a free press. To give us early alarm and put us on our guard against encroachments of power. This then is a right of utmost importance, one for which, instead of yielding it up, we ought rather to spill our blood.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Blood, Office, Giving

  Alexander Hamilton, Julius Goebel, Joseph Henry Smith (1969). “The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton: Documents and Commentary”, p.831, Columbia University Press

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• The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder.

  Arundhati Roy

  Independent, Mean, Profound

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• The press is not only free, it is powerful. That power is ours. It is the proudest that man can enjoy.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Powerful, Pride, Men

  Benjamin Disraeli's speech at the Printing Trade Festival, 1845.

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• The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to... bare the secrets of government and inform the people.

  Hugo Black

  Father, Government, People

  Concurring in New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713, 1971.

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• The durability of free speech and free press rests on the simple concept that it search for the truth and tell the truth.

  Herbert Hoover

  Simple, Government, Presidential

  Herbert Hoover (1938). “Addresses upon the American road”

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• As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press. A free press ensures the flow of information to the public, and let me say, during a time when the role of government in our lives and in our enterprises seems to grow every day--both at home and abroad - ensuring the vitality of a free and independent press is more important than ever.

  Mike Pence

  Real, Believe, Home

  Mike Pence's remarks at World Press Freedom Day, May 4, 2009.

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• A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.

  Albert Camus

  4th Of July, Media, Be Good

  "TV news crisis needs a radical solution" by Richard Tait, www.theguardian.com. September 18, 2009.

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• The essence of the free press is the reliable, reasonable and moral nature of freedom.

  Karl Marx

  Essence, Moral, Presses

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• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  James Madison

  Exercise, Secular Society, Law

  Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates, J. W. Randolph, James Madison (1850). “The Virginia Report of 1799-1800: Touching the Alien and Sedition Laws; Together with the Virginia Resolutions of December 21, 1798, Including the Debate and Proceedings Thereon in the House of Delegates of Virginia and Other Documents Illustrative of the Report and Resolutions”, p.136

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• Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one.

  A. J. Liebling

  Men, Media, He Man

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• A people that wants to be free must arm itself with a free press.

  George Seldes

  Hands, People, Want

  "Lords of the Press". Book by George Seldes, 1938.

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• When people in power can operate in the dark, inevitably they abuse that power. So, you need outside forces to bring light and transparency to what they're doing. And, one of the ways you do that is through journalism, and through guaranteeing a free press. That is its purpose, to provide a check on those who wield power.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Dark, Light, People

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