I knew you were going to bring up the Reformation. The printing press, by that point, was something anyone with sufficient resources could obtain. The Catholic Church was certainly not lacking for resources. Martin Luther and his allies didn't have access to non-traditional media channels. Everyone was using printing presses, the Catholic Church just wanted to have the last word on who was allowed to use printing presses.
Interestingly, in 1644 John Milton wrote an impassioned philosophical defense of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression. He wrote it response to the requirement, of the Protestant government, that all authors be licensed and approved by the state. In that defense, he wrote, "Yet if all cannot be of one mind—as who looks they should be?—this doubtless is more wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that many be tolerated, rather than all compelled. I mean not tolerated popery, and open superstition, which, as it extirpates all religions and civil supremacies, so itself should be extirpate"
Interestingly, in 1644 John Milton wrote an impassioned philosophical defense of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression. He wrote it response to the requirement, of the Protestant government, that all authors be licensed and approved by the state. In that defense, he wrote, "Yet if all cannot be of one mind—as who looks they should be?—this doubtless is more wholesome, more prudent, and more Christian, that many be tolerated, rather than all compelled. I mean not tolerated popery, and open superstition, which, as it extirpates all religions and civil supremacies, so itself should be extirpate"
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/608/608-h/608-h.htm