“Every editor, being assumed to be a criminally disposed person and naturally inclined to blasphemy and sedition, had to enter into sureties. Every person possessing a printing-press or types for printing and every type-founder was ordered to give notice to the Clerk of the Peace. Every person selling type was ordered to give an account of all persons to whom they were sold. Every person who printed anything also had to keep a copy of the matter printed and write on it the name and abode of the person who employed him to print it. The printer was treated as an enemy of the state, and compelled to become an informer.”
Chartist George Holyoake’s description of the position of 18th and early 19th century newsprint staff in England The media are now controlled by the rich and powerful, pushing reactionary agendas of law and order and submission to authority.
