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

— Thomas Jefferson

Letter to George Washington (9 September 1792)
1790s

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Thomas Jefferson 456

3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826

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“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, none ever will.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

No government ought to be without censors: & where the press is free, no one ever will.
Thomas Jefferson, letter http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl100.htm to George Washington (9 September 1792)
Misattributed

“In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.”

Hugo Black (1886–1971) U.S. Supreme Court justice

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

“With thinking men, the question can never arise, who ought to be free? Because no one ought to be free. All government is slavery.”

George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) American activist

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 170

“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 (1959) 48th Vice President of the United States

World Press Freedom Day (May 4, 2009)
2000s

“A free press is one where it's okay to state the conclusion you're led to by the evidence.”

Bill Moyers (1934) American journalist

Speech at the National Conference on Media Reform (15 May 2005) http://www.freepress.net/news/8120
Context: A free press is one where it's okay to state the conclusion you're led to by the evidence. One reason I'm in hot water is because my colleagues and I at NOW didn't play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide the world into Democrats & Republicans, liberals & conservatives, and allow journalists to pretend they have done their job if instead of reporting the truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the news.

“The issue of press freedom is a constant concern in my interactions with the Chinese government. It’s an issue that I’ve raised with the President here in Burma. I’m pretty blunt and pretty frank about the fact that societies that repress journalists ultimately oppress people as well, and that if you want a society that is free and vibrant and successful, part of that formula is the free flow of information, of ideas, and that requires a free press. […] And we believe that when governments censor or control information, that ultimately that undermines not only the society, but it leads to eventual encroachments on individual rights as well. […] I brought up a basic principle that I stated earlier, which is that a free press is a foundation for any democracy. We rely on journalists to explain and describe the actions of our government. If the government controls the journalists, then it's very difficult for citizens to hold that government accountable.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks by President Obama and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma in Joint Press Conference at Aung San Suu Kyi Residence in Rangoon, Burma on November 14, 2014 http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/14/remarks-president-obama-and-daw-aung-san-suu-kyi-burma-joint-press-confe
2014

“I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state.”

William L. Shirer book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960)

“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 (1862–1942) Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, United States Senator, member of the United States House of Re…

Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936)

“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.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.
New York Times (November 28, 1954).
Judicial opinions

“The government and the people are under a moral necessity of acting together; a free press compels them to bend to one another.”

James Mill (1773–1836) Scottish historian, economist, political theorist and philosopher

The Edinburgh Review, vol. 18 (1811), p. 121

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

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