After the storming of Bastille, during the summer of 1789 A.D., one important law came into effect and that was the abolition of censorship. In the old regime i.e. under the rule of kings, all written material and cultural activities-books, news, papers, plays could be published and performed only with the approval of the king. Now under the Declaration of the Rights of Men and Citizens, it was proclaimed that freedom of speech and expression is a natural right. Newspapers, pamphlets, books and printed pictures flooded the towns of France from where they travelled quickly into the rural areas. They all described and discussed the events and changes taking place in France. Freedom of the press also meant that opposing views of events could be expressed. Each side tried to convince the other about its position through newspapers. Plays, songs and festive processions attracted many people. This was one of the way, they could grasp and identify with ideas such as liberty or justice that political philosophers wrote about at length in texts which only a few educated people could read.
