When I became president of Carnegie Corporation in 1997, there were many issues on my mind, many challenges to our nation and our society that I thought could be addressed by the foundation Andrew Carnegie had created to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. High on the list was the strength and vitality of our democracy and our democratic institutions. In a way, I'm a student of democracy because, as an immigrant to this country and a naturalized citizen, the journey to freedom, to become part of a free society, is a lifelong expedition. And along the way, it became clear to me that one of the underlying truths about democracy is that it simply cannot exist without a free press.
Read Vartan Gregorian's column in the Huffington Post