To the Editor:

I agree with the Altamont Enterprise editorial that “Journalism needs a champion — you.”

Obstructing freedom of speech and freedom of the press paves the way for tyranny. The very first Amendment to the Constitution protects these freedoms by law. We the People protect them by principled action: by valuing them, practicing them, and teaching them to our children.

I don’t want a Ministry of Information that regulates the content of news media and dictates the activities and words of journalists. Governmental tyrannies all over the planet have perfected this model to indoctrinate and control people. Corporate tyrannies are trying to perfect it here, especially on TV and radio where ratings drive content and where we get only a fraction of what we need to know about local, national, and global events.

No person or institution, including the press, is perfect. But journalists, more than most of us, are aware of personal bias and ethical issues. The best of them know the difference between opinion, persuasion, manipulation, and objective truth. They really care about accuracy and fact, about getting the story right, sometimes to their peril, like my daughter-in-law, who gets threatening emails in the middle of the night.

Last week, the New York Times quoted a 1964 Supreme Court case where public officials sued the paper for libel. The court ruled in favor of the Times, saying, “Public discussion is a political duty” [and such] discussion must be “uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,” and “may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”

We the People, including the passionate people of the press, are responsible for holding government officials accountable. They are supposed to represent everyone, not just the ones who voted for them. We’ll never get all the People to participate, but democracy challenges us to protect each other’s rights, even if we don’t agree with or even like each other.

I’m glad to have a local paper that supports our freedom of speech. I support their freedom of the press.

Dianne Sefcik

Westerlo