Chris Patten Quotes

Our liberty depends on freedom of the press.

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

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.

We do not want to interfere with the freedom of press.

I don't want to impede free press, by the way. The last thing I would want to do is that.

A free press is one of the pillars of democracy.

If someone tries to put limits on the press, I'll be the first one standing up for the right of press, left and right, to continue saying and being part of the discussion and forwarding the discussion.

Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That's why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist.

No man ought to be hindered saying or writing what he pleases on the conduct of those who undertake the management of national affairs, in which all are concerned, and therefore have the right to inquire, and to publish their suspicions concerning them. For if you punish the slanderer, you deter the fair inquirer.

There's no law preventing a journalist from publishing whatever they want.

Freedom of the press is the staff of life, for any vital democracy.

All murder is a tragedy but when journalists are killed, public debate loses a voice that can provide an important contribution to democracy. It is essential that governments do all they can to ensure safe conditions for journalists to carry out their work.

It is well to remember that freedom through the press is the thing that comes first. Most of us probably feel we couldn't be free without newspapers, and that is the real reason we want the newspapers to be free.

A free press is one that prints a dictator's speech but doesn't have to.

The only security of all is in a free press.

Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.

I cannot overemphasise the value we place on a free, independent and outspoken press

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.

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. The scope and nature of the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of the press are to be viewed and applied in that light.

A free press is the immune system of representative democracy.

To get the inestimable good that freedom of the press assures one must know how to submit to the inevitable evil it gives rise to.

Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.

Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.

We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets.

We need a free media, not just freedom of speech.