>The government demanded that government employees get approval for any direct communications with media, etc. This all began when a researcher seriously impacted the salmon industry by releasing extremely preliminary results (that turned out to be wrong), on her own accord, making a name for herself. The media loves apocalyptic outcomes ("So would you say this means that we're all going to die?"), so of course it made headlines with the most dire of predictions.
Why should "the government" have any control over what "employees" say?
Everyone has the right to speak their mind and governments, in particular, should be defending that right, not attempting to suppress it.
You mention the media hyping what a particular person said, but that is a failure of that media and their readers to not jump to unsubstantiated conclusions. The real work that needs to be done is in the understanding of media, not in preventing the production of media.
Why should "the government" have any control over what "employees" say?
Everyone has the right to speak their mind and governments, in particular, should be defending that right, not attempting to suppress it.
You mention the media hyping what a particular person said, but that is a failure of that media and their readers to not jump to unsubstantiated conclusions. The real work that needs to be done is in the understanding of media, not in preventing the production of media.