National Security Ought to be Valued Over Freedom of the Press

"No government ought to be without censors, and where press is free, none ever will." It is because I agree with Thomas Jefferson that I must negate the resolution resolved, that National security ought to be valued over freedom of the press. Infringements upon essential freedoms in the pursuit of safety and security betray priorities contrary to the fundamental values of democratic nations, and often fails to result in improved security. My value, or what I'm striving to achieve is Liberty, While my value criterion, or my means of achieving the value is The Protection of 1st Amendment Freedoms, seeing as it is utterly imperative to have a government system that is entirely transparent to their citizens as to what they are doing. If our government is allowed to listen to all of our phone calls, track our location, and read our emails, let's face it! people may choose to sport middle age technology once again if this absurdity continues!The primary problem with this, is that the world was incredibly short on carrier pigeons last I heard. Let's move now to my three contentions. Contention 1: The Constitution The constitution clearly specified how our government was to operate, without exception.Freedom of the press was placed in the first amendment because the founders deemed it most valuable. And if the government is allowed to take this essential freedom away, who's to say they won't take away another? The constitution clearly stated, "Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of the press." Not, "whenever the government happens to have a whimsical urge that they don't want publicized" As a popular joke summarized "A man walked into the library and asked for a copy of the constitution, the librarian then replied, "I'm sorry, we don't carry periodicals." The constitution was put in place to keep the government from becoming what it wasn't meant to be. And freedom of the press is arguably the most influential right in keeping the government accountable. Which brings me to my second contention: Contention 2: The removal of freedom of the press inspires tyranny. In keeping the government accountable, a free press hinders the government from doing other than what it was put in place to do. As Vladimir Lenin said, "It is freedom of the press, and freedom of the press alone, that halts our headlong course into socialism." Where freedom of the press is in place, tyranny is impossible. For more than 215 years, the United States has managed to flourish in the absence of of any federal legislation directly prohibiting the press from publishing government secrets. Freedom of the press is a principal pillar of a free government, and when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on it's ruins. Freedom of the press served one purpose in America, to remove the the fear of of the common law doctrine of seditious libel so that citizens could freely speak or publish, without license, their grievances against public policy, or conduct of public officials. One of the distasteful things found under the common law was the government practice of shielding itself through requiring license to publish any criticism that they felt made people dissatisfied with their government. Certain rights should be limited, such as the right to drive 95mph through a school zone drinking alcohol with no seat belt, but not freedom of the press. Because freedom of the press is foundational in protecting the rights that deserve to be protected. Contention 3 Liberty is the preeminent value and is upheld by a free press. If we valued life over liberty, this country would not be alive today. Our founders seceded Great Britain, one of the most nationally secure countries, in favor of liberty. As Patrick Henry so eloquently stated, "Give me liberty or give me death!" If the government is allowed to define a national security emergency, then it will do whatever it wants to during that time in the name of national security. For example, in the case of Frank Olson, this man was unknowingly given a dose of LSD, a hallucinogenic, after he discovered the location of secret torture sites in Europe. The next day, he "accidentally plunged out of a window to his death 13 stories below. All of this information was recently discovered because the CIA restricted freedom of the press in the name of national security. If the general public knew about this wile it was going on, they would have expressed their concern and prevented further actions. In conclusion, freedom of the press is the most important right in a nation because off the freedom and equality it brings a nation and it's population, while national security, when valued over freedom of the press, promotes a corrupt and overpowering government.