Thomas Jefferson said:
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure."
On the surface, it seems like a tough topic to debate. Intrinsically, both of these rights are ones we often take for granted unless we are forced to somehow use them. But the right to free press effects people in ways they rarely see or feel. Free press gives ordinary individuals a forum and a medium with which to expose those decision makers who are corrupt with their power.
Razia Bhatti said:
"Journalists must seek and speak the truth, for we are the voice of the voiceless millions."
I think of journalists, editorialists, and editors as the union of independent common thought. They put to print and convey to the masses when many of us think and only a few of us know. Election information is often fueled by the information contained in newspapers and on the internet. The freedom of press produces and protects knowledge and intellect.
There is a reason the forefathers of the USA made the first item on the Bill of Rights the right to free press (as well as freedom of speech, etc), and that is because the inability to voice news, information, or opinion was the greatest oppression one could suffer. The press acts as the watchdog of the governement that the public elects, and without that watchdog, that government would have free reign to do as it pleases to the detriment of the general populous.
Thomas Jefferson to John Jay said:
"Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it."
If freedom of speech were limited, then the dissemination of fact, opinion, and thought would be stifled, and we, as a people, would cease to evolve and would be clueless as to the goings on of the free world. I have traveled to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, where books, magazines, and newspapers are restricted by the government that runs the country. Make so mistake, the country deals with massive corruption and is still quite communist, but the general public is powerless against it, due to the level of propaganda they are forced to imbibe. College students are under-educated because of a lack of access to certain books on history, education, etc.
Albert Camus said:
"A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad."
The press is a conglomerate conscience of a people. It reports information, it editorializes, it brings to life. It allows individuals to accept or reject. It allows people independent though. Thusly, the right to free press is not only more important than the right to a free trial, but it is the most important right of all.
