Press Censorship Quotes
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Twain was a much sought after public speaker in an era before TV and radio. Some speeches like this he delivered many times in many places.
Note how the second paragraph nullifies the first of the government declares an emergency. This is a trick that is very common in constitutions.
In 1848 a pro-slavery mob in Washington DC Gamaliel Bailey's anti-slavery publication, The National Era, which soon thereafter was the publisher of the serialized Uncle Tom's Cabin. Hale introduced a bill in the Senate outlawing rioting in the District of Columbia. The Southern Senators objected violently and this served as a catalyst for the for the most extensive public debate that had ever been held on the slavery issue. Hale probably intended this. He was the first public anti-slavery Senator.
This statement demonstrates the transformation from the Communist era where the press was considered simply as another organ of the state. Before that, it was an instrument of the Czar. This is one of the world’s most firm statements of journalistic independence although recent Russian regimes have moved to limit journalistic independence.
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Ironically politicians need the journalists to communicate their message adn get public exposure and the Journalists need the politicians to provide subject matter and to serve as sources. Each uses the other which produces resentment.
