What would Junius say?

Brendan O'Neill of Spiked has used his Telegraph blog to give a spirited defence of media freedom whilst all around people scream for its curtailing.

Yesterday, effectively at the invitation of the Guardian and other campaigners against the Murdoch empire, MPs butted back in, once more making it the business of the state to discuss and determine what kind of ethics and morality the press should adhere to.

As he points out these moves so enthusiastically cheerled by the boy Dave would cause a heart failure in figures as diverse as Milton,

 Far from controlling what the press is allowed to say, and how it may say it, Parliament should have more faith in the ability of truth to survive in the rowdy arena of unfettered public debate, said Milton. “Let Truth and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”

And having just had the good fortune to pick up an 1804 edition of the collected letters of Junius who is pretty strong on the subject,

"Let it be impressed upon your minds, let it be instilled in your children, that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all the civil, political and religious  rights of an Englishman...