Press Independence Quotes

A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference. It must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials. It must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and inquiring without fear or favour. It must enjoy the protection of the constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.

Freedom of the press is to the machinery of the state what the safety valve is to the steam engine.

I developed an interest in supporting independent journalists in a way that leverages their work to the greatest extent possible, all in support of the public interest.

The press is supposed to watch the powerful. And not throw in with them.

Once a paper admits any principle of censorship for survival, the we-don't-want-to-do-it-but-we-don't-want-to-lose-the-printer kind of censorship, it jeopardizes the integrity of its editorial principle. It's better to print and be damned, because you'll be damned anyway.

The more I view the independence of the press in its principal effects, the more I convince myself that among the moderns the independence of the press is the capital and so to speak the constitutive element of freedom.

A free press can only exist where there is private control over the means of production

The concept that the press is an organ of government policy dies hard.

During the Gulf War, journalists used to challenge government news managers and insisted they wouldn't just accept the official version of events.

Newspapers in this country are famously independent of politics.

The corporatization of the press really has hurt the press.

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.

The last thing reporters and editors want to be told is what to do and how to write. They don't want to be some politically correct, Orwellian, kind of like "you're telling me how to write about...?"