Suppressing a free press drives dissent underground rather than ending it

Evidence

Where the press is not free it has all the more power, as is evidenced in the history of France. It is vain to expect that if the liberty of the press is denied, rebellion will cease. Before the mutiny were not the chapaties circulated? Are not the Wahabees able to communicate their plans to one another? The Indian Government ought to know that they who speak out are their true friends. The papers that point out their errors have no intention of creating a disturbance; they only seek the welfare of the country. — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 138

Categorization

• SHARE: A 19th-century Bengali editorial making the Mill-style argument that censored publics become more dangerous, quoting the chapati circulation before the 1857 mutiny — perfect for a press-freedom or South Asia history buff.
• APHORISMS: A genuinely counterintuitive, quotable line of political wisdom: ‘they who speak out are their true friends.’