The Free Press may have been written some ninety odd years ago, but the observations and comments made by its visionary English author Hilaire Belloc provide a guide as to the nature of so-called free speech within a so-called free and democratic nation. It’s also useful as a primer for anyone involved with extending the reach of The Column. In fact, Belloc would have been most comfortable with the internet and blogging. He could easily have been writing about the role of The Column when he states at the beginning -
“I PROPOSE to discuss in what follows the evil of the great modern Capitalist Press, its function in vitiating and misinforming opinion and in putting power into ignoble hands; its correction by the formation of small independent organs, and the probably increasing effect of these last.”
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