Dear Editor,
A United States President, Thomas Jefferson in a letter to one Edward Carrington in 1787 declared: ‘It is better to have newspapers without a government, than to have a government without newspapers.”
There could not be a more emphatic endorsement of the free press which according to my research, Jefferson argued is more essential to liberty than a formal government. He firmly believed that “when the people are well informed, they can maintain control of their government…an informed citizenry acting as watchdogs is the only way to prevent tyranny….citizens could manage without a centralized state, but a government operating without public scrutiny – a free press – would inevitably become oppressive.”
Even when the press spreads false information, Jefferson believed that truthful information would eventually prevail. These sentiments remained true to Jefferson even as he faced rigid scrutiny and harsh criticism from the press.
Today, we face the closure of the bastion of a free press in modern day Guyana. A sad day and regrettable day indeed!