Timothy Garton Ash on the crisis of free speech and democracy.
It’s all there in the Greeks. Demosthenes talked about the truth spoken in all freedom and Aristotle of the wisdom of the crowd. Yet today, in the era of the smartphone, echo chamber effects and filter bubbles seem to gain ground towards polarization, whereas having uncensored, diverse and trustworthy media seems an unattainable ideal. We used to think that the internet would set us free, so what did exactly happen?
British author and Professor of European Studies at Oxford University, Timothy Garton Ash shares his reflections on the role of the media in people’s political decision-making and choices.