Benjamin Disraeli Quotes

The power of the periodical press is second only to that of the people.

Only in democratic countries is there the beginning of a suspicion that the old axioms about the press being the bulwark of liberty is something that affects the daily life of the people--that it is a living warning rather than an ancient wisecrack. A people that wants to be free must arm itself with a free press..

The liberty of the press is the Palladium of all the civil, political, and religious rights of an Englishman.

The basis of our government's being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.

It is far from a coincidence that the rise of the popular press spelled eventual doom for monarchs of all types. Once the news becomes democratized, governance is sure to follow.

I have never quite grasped the worry about the power of the press. After all, it speaks with a thousand voices, in constant dissonance.

It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.

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

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

The newspapers of your country seem to be more powerful than the government.

We do not need a censorship of the press. We have a censorship by the press.

Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set.

If there is any power in this country greater than the power of the people, we will destroy it.

All authority belongs to the people.

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

The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to the reigning quacks.

The media is like the terrain and weather. It is a fact; it's nothing you can change. You have to learn to deal with it. And it isn't bad or good, it's just there. I don't think we should put limits on the press, unless it's for security reasons or for reasons of risk in the case of an operation. We value freedom of the press. It's something we are fighting for. It's part of the constitutional rights that we swear our allegiance to. We just have to accept it and learn to deal with it in a right way, and give and take.

… 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. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people

In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates

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.

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

In spite of your “liberty of the press”, at a hint from your government your whole national press becomes unanimous on questions outside domestic politics.

I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. That we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. […] power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.

The press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?