[B]efore he said any more, [Rieux] wanted to know if the journalist would be allowed to tell the truth. “Certainly,” Rambert replied. “I mean,” Rieux explained, “would you be allowed to publish an unqualified condemnation of the present state of things?” “Unqualified? Well, no, I couldn’t go that far. But surely things aren’t quite so bad as that?” “No,” Rieux said quietly, they weren’t so bad as that. He had put the question solely to find out if Rambert could or couldn’t state the facts without paltering with the truth. “I’ve no use for statements in which something is kept back,” he added. “ That is why I shall not furnish information in support of yours.”

Camus, The Plague, Chapter 2.