"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny...Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal, 'U.N. Declaration of Rights' "
This had until recently been only tested for top-down information. Nowadays, everyone can be a broadcaster and we're seeing quite different results.
Doesn’t mean a locked down system is better though. With that they don’t have to bother.
What you need is a decentralized system resistant to propaganda techniques.
Rather what you need is a means for propaganda to be rapidly identified and refuted with counterarguments in a way that its would-be victims can see it.
That's why we are where we are, because "both sides" want to have that control, they just want it for themselves and not those that disagree with them.