Without an active press or freedom of speech there is no way to determine who is actually tellingthetruth and there are few economic disincentives to actually tell thetruth.
Most dangerous of all is when followers have no way of knowing if their leaders are tellingthetruth, or if they are telling an out-and-out lie, or if they are telling a tale distorted by disinformation and self-deception.
But lying to a federal executive branch employee is -- even if you're not under oath and even if tellingthetruth might incriminate you and even if no one is fooled by your lie.