A free press can operate when the citizenry is capable of accessing reliable and intelligent reporting. The people of a democracy need to be able to evaluate news effectively and have the capability to recognize credible sources. Figures from the past recognized the importance of a free press in a democracy.
"The press must be free; it has always been so and much evil has been corrected by it. If Government finds itself annoyed by it, let it examine its own conduct and it will find the cause."
Lord Chancellor Thomas Erskine, 1792 Rex v. Paine
“Absolute freedom of the press to discuss public questions is a foundation stone of American liberty.”
Herbert Hoover
“No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free none ever will.”
“Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”
Thomas Jefferson
“A free press is not a privilege but an organic necessity in a great society. Without criticism and reliable and intelligent reporting, the government cannot govern. For there is no adequate way in which it can keep itself informed about what the people of the country are thinking and doing and wanting.”
“A press monopoly is incompatible with a free press; and one can proceed with this principle; if there is a monopoly of the means of communications—of radio, television, magazines, books, public meetings—it follows that this society is by definition and in fact deprived of freedom.”
Walter Lippmann