"Nothing is more common with printers, especially of Newspapers, than the continual cry of the liberty of the press, as if because they are printers they are to have more privileges than other people. As the term "liberty of the press" is adopted in this country without being understood I will state the origin of it and shew what it means. The term comes from England, and the case was as follows.
Prior to what is called in England the revolution, which was in 1688, no work could be published in that country without first obtaining the permission of an officer appointed by the government for inspecting works intended for publication. The same was the case in France, except that in France there were forty who were called censors, and in England there was one called Impremateur.
At the revolution the office of Impremateur was abolished and as works could then be published without first obtaining the permission of the government officer, the press was, in consequence of that abolition, said to be free, and it was from this circumstance that the term liberty of the press arose. The press, which is a tongue to the eye, was then put exactly in the case of the human tongue. A man does not ask liberty before hand to say something he has a mind to say, but he becomes answerable afterwards for the atrocities he may utter. In like manner, if a man makes the press utter attrocious things he becomes answerable for them as if he had uttered them by mouth. Mr. Jefferson has said in his inaugural speech, that "error of opinion might be tolerated when reason was left free to combat it." This is sound philosophy in cases of error. But there is a difference between error and licentiousness.
. . . Now these men ought to have know that the term, liberty of the press, arose from a FACT, the abolition of the office of Imprimateur, and that opinion has nothing to do in the case. The term refers to the fact of Printing free from prior restraint, and not at all to the matter Printed whether good or bad. The public at large, or in case of prosecution, a jury of the country will be the judges of the matter."
~ Thomas Paine, On the Term "Liberty of the Press"
October 20, 1806 |
