They say that words are mightier than swords. This is often true. The rise of Nazi Germany began with Hitler's speeches. And there is no Islamic terrorism without extremist preachers.
"In the beginning was the Word," says the Gospel of John. Indeed, all religions are constructs of language. Constructs of language have been the root of more violence among humans than any non-linguistic motivation.
Words are mightier than swords. Why, then, do European democracies have so many gun control laws and so few speech control laws?
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press, or the media in general, can be destructive. They can be politically destructive and counterproductive to personal freedom, especially when the media focuses on the sexual conduct of individuals.
Because people are highly interested in sex, any sexual information reported about an individual will be discussed repeatedly until it gets blown out of proportion. If there is just a slight media rumor about, for example, a president's sexual affair, people will be more attracted to this topic than to the president’s economic policy, even though the latter may have a much greater impact on people’s lives.
Humans are often intrinsically envious of the sexual partners of others. Thus, if a sexual affair between a parliamentarian and a movie star is reported in the media, this can create resentment toward the parliamentarian among many voters.
Giving the media the freedom to report on the sexuality of individuals is an anachronism of the same category as repressive tolerance (tolerance for repressors results in more repression, not in more tolerance).
Humans generally engage in sexual activities in private. And there is a good evolutionary reason for this: as soon as other members of the species see people having sex, or just hear about it, a common reaction is mate guarding or jealousy. This pattern isn’t exclusive to humans but is observable in much of the animal kingdom.
A wise government in firm control of a country could do a lot to advance peace and personal freedom by curtailing the media and banning reporting on the sexual conduct of individual people.