On the record
This is necessary in all government; and if opinion be support, what takes away this destroys that support: but the liberty of the press is necessary to this government.
Said by
Edmund Burke
Source
gutenberg.orgThis is necessary in all government; and if opinion be support, what takes away this destroys that support: but the liberty of the press is necessary to this government.
Burke highlights the necessity of press freedom for the support and stability of government.
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More from Edmund Burke
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
But when the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
They come from one who has been no tool of power, no flatterer of greatness, and who in his last acts does not wish to belie the tenor of his life.