nationalpost Any government-mandated oversight or control of information is an attack on the soul of democratic life
The idea that a Justin Trudeau government, or — for it is possible and maybe likely — that a Pierre Poilievre government, or — and we all like a little fantasy — a Jagmeet Singh government should have any authority to determine what is news and what is not news, is an offence to the democratic intellect.
The distinguishing essential feature of all tyrannies, dictatorships and oligarchies is the control of information — of books, newspapers, broadcasting. Present-day China provides the most vast example; North Korea perhaps the most vivid; and any of the lesser one-rule states prove the principle.
There should never be in a democracy any role for government — outside explicit statute law on slander and genuine incitement to immediate violence — in determining what citizens can say and read, watch or research. Any government-mandated oversight or control of information is an attack on the soul of democratic life. That soul is freedom of thought, expression and speech.
Now it is a given that no modern democracy would contemplate, let alone go to the limits of total control that is the hallmark of all dictatorships and Communist regimes. Yet there is more than enough evidence to point out that in very many of them — our own in the present moment is a prime example — their leaders and their partisan administrations have more than a taste for “a little bit” of that control…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… | National Post
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