Permission: A True Story in 100 Words
Jason Kuznicki on May 20th 2005
Early in the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat learned that the press had been liberalized. Immediately he went to the authorities and asked permission to print a newspaper.
They replied that he needed no permission; freedom of the press belonged to all citizens alike. But Marat insisted. Hoping to be rid of him, the municipality issued an impromptu statement of approval.
Marat placed a notice of their act in each issue of his radical journal L’Ami du peuple. Soon his writings became so incendiary that the government revoked its approval and attempted to shut down his press. Marat went into hiding.
Filed in The Basement