I agree, Tom, that it is frightening that people believe that they can have stability or harmony without freedom of information. A free press is the best way to get news out so that people can make informed decisions. Frankly, I'm not sure if justice is possible without the full truth. As MLK said: "Without justice, there can be no peace."

I do think that the information needs to be true to the best of verification, however. I feel for you, Sir Russell, that there was a disregard for the truth in the search for ratings but that is just an illustration of the callous disregard that those in power have for facts they don't like. From the Bush administration feeding falsehoods to the media to corporations fudging number on their annual reports, we all suffer when the truth is lost.

And a press beholden to corporate sponsors is as much a danger as a government restricting them. We need to be able to trust that they are reporting the news without undue bias and not failing to report things that reflect badly on their owners or their owner's profit margin.