The Fight for Free Speech
Posted on June 8, 2008
Steve Boriss writes a good one at PJM on free speech in the internet age.
In many ways, there was more free speech before the printing press was invented than at any time since. Yes, we have more rights today to criticize government, but strangely, until recently technology has reduced each individual’s ability to effectively do it. The Internet offers the promise to advance free speech to unprecedented levels — but it won’t happen unless some of us shut up and the rest of us speak up.
Before the printing press was invented more than 500 years ago, we may not have been free peoples, but we did have relatively free speech as individuals. News was spread by word-of-mouth, and everyone could contribute to what was in the news. Even governments had to compete to be heard like everyone else, which they did for instance by hiring
colorfully-garbed minstrels who sang their version of the news.While the printing press may have been a great leap forward for the spread of information, it also represented two steps backwards for free speech. First, these large, hard-to-conceal machines now allowed governments to stifle criticism, by identifying those responsible for spreading information to the masses, and subjecting them to prior restraint, licensing, censorship, and punishment.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, History, News
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