Restrictions On Free Speech

  Kirby, Vermont resident Melanie Finn wants to restrict free speech and letter writers to the Caledonian Record.
  "Limit length of letters. This paper needs more diverse, fresh voices on the letters page. Many other newspapers have such policies." Finn said. One would not need to look further than New Hampshire to see just how dangerously bad this would be.   All New Hampshire newspapers restrict length in one form or another. This isn't ideal but it's fair considering the rising costs of newsprint and the market competition newspapers face. These are also opinion letters not graduate level dissertations and some letter writers don't understand this. But the rest of the letter writing policies that exist in the Granite State are clear restrictions of free speech and constitutional rights.
  This starts with one letter per month, geographical requirements for submission and with content has to be in alignment with the political philosophy of the editor. The NH Union Leader is the worst but they all do it. If it isn't conservative based, advances progressive ideas or is critical of policy in Concord it doesn't get printed- even if it's fully supported by verifiable facts and on-scene accounts.
  This isn't free speech this isn't the first amendment and in most cases it isn't responsible journalism. But that's the way it's done in New Hampshire because it's all about preference, perception, power and ultimately control. Melanie Finn doesn't say what she means by "diverse, fresh voices" but I'd suspect it falls somewhere in this list.
  Vermont and the rest of the world is fortunate to have the Caledonian Record it's a freedom that doesn't exist everywhere.