John F. Kennedy Quotes

Free and open communications is the best guarantee of democracy.

Being a reporter is at the very core of a democracy, being a free person in a free society.

To-day a democrat of the old school would demand, not freedom for the press, but freedom from the press

Every man has a right to be heard; but no man has the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal cords.

A free People will be showing that they are so, by their Freedom of Speech

We must have a free press. If we are to maintain democracxy as we know it, we must have a free and adversarial press.... That's how dictoators get power [by intimidating, restriciting and censoring the press.]

If you can exchange information freely, isn’t that almost a definition of democracy.

A free press can of course be good or bad, but most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.

A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both ... And a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.

Our press has too much freedom …. Democracy is a very lovely thing for a developed people.

A people without reliable news is, sooner or later, a people without the basis of freedom.

In the absence of debate unrestricted utterance leads to the degradation of opinion .... The more rational is overcome by the less rational, and the opinions that will prevail will be those that are held most ardently by those with the most passionate will. For that reason the freedom to speak can never be maintained merely by objecting to interference with the liberty of the press, of printing, of broadcasting, of the screen. It can be maintained only by promoting debate.

The University is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. It is engaged in making students safe for ideas. Thus it permits the freest expression of views before students, trusting to their good sense in passing judgment on these views. Only in this way can it best serve American democracy.

The more internal criticism and dissatisfaction publicly communicable within a society, the better and freer the society.

It is only in the freest of nations that people can not only criticize the government, fairly or unfairly, but in extraordinarily few—only the greatest—do the negative criticisms get very wide distribution. Look for the nation where their media are full of criticisms, and there you will find a nation sufficiently free and confident to consider possible improvement from any and all sources.

There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly TERRIBLE to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a FREE PRESS.

The foundation of our democracy is the ability to have a debate about any subject. That is why I am so committed to defending free speech.

In the most civilized and progressive countries freedom of discussion is recognized as a fundamental principle.

The job of the press is to encourage debate, not to supply the public with information.

I regard freedom of expression as the primary right without which one can not have a proper functioning democracy.

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

As to the media, they are protected by the First Amendment, as they should be.

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.

I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.

Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost