Modern governments participate in the public discourse in a number of ways. Still, in the United States, government speech intended to perpetuate power has been held unconstitutional from the Founding days. Governments regulate the sphere of communication to shield the public discourse from private monopolists. Activities funded by public money send cultural messages, limit or promote the distribution of certain views. Unless carefully proscribed, such interventions may result in further skewing of the public debate.
Government speech is protected speech like any other speech.
However, given the enormous resources at its disposal, unlimited government speech may drive out all other speech. Hence the need to consider the possibilities of its restriction. Legitimate restrictions to free speech originate from the ideal of the neutral state. The neutrality requirement can be related to a liberal expectation regarding the nature of the state or it may originate from constitutionalized concerns. Although neutrality in the speech domain has never reached the absolutes of state neutrality in religious matters, certain elements of belief neutrality do exist with regard to speech.