Marx and Lenin on press freedom
Marx analysed the problem of a free press thoroughly in two long essays which are to be found in the first volume of the collected edition of his works. For Marx “the right to think and speak the truth” was an elementary human right and freedom of the press — as he said — merely “human freedom in practice”. Marx recognized that human freedom is made up of a complex of interdependent freedoms. “Each form of freedom”, he said, “postulates the other in the same way as one limb of the body postulates another. Whenever one particular freedom is threatened, freedom itself is threatened. Freedom is...