| Show PAPERS AS SEEN BY PRO AND OTHERS Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed Why shouldgovernment which is doing what it believes to be right allow itself to be criticized It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons Ideas are much more fatal things than guns Why should any man be allowed to buyprinting press and disseminate pernicious opinion calculated to embarrass the government Those were the words of Nikolai Lenin whose theories gave rise to Soviet Russiaunswerving Communistic regime There isterrific disadvantage not to have the abrasive quality of the press applied to you to an administration even though we never like it and even though we wish they didn write it and even though we disapprove There isnany doubt that we could not do the job at all infree society withoutvery very active press The terminology of John Kennedy president of the United States 1961-1963 If there is one thing we ought to be careful about it is in regard to interfering with the liberty of the press think it is great deal better to errlittle bit on the side of having too much discussion and having too virulent language used by the press rather than to err on the side of having them not say what they ought to say The words of another president Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 Were it left to me to decide whether we should have government without newspapers or newspapers without govern ment should not hesitate formoment to prefer the latter But should mean that every man should receive those newspapers and be capable of reading them And still another president of the United States Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809 The scholarly Jefferson had other quotable thoughts on the subject When the press is free and every man able to read all is safe he said And on another occasion the third American president stated The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him asrational moral and social being Yet another oft-quoted Jefferson statement is The only security of all is infree press no government ought to be without censors and when the press is free no one ever will 413 Digital image 2005 Marriott Library University of Utah Al rights reserved |
