The Press: Fourth Power or Counter-power? (original) (raw)

The Free Press: Necessary Illusions.docx

Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2019

This article claims that the relevance of the ‘truth argument’ to free speech theory is based on an illusion. According to some critical perspectives this illusion consists in the false belief that a free press is a proper means for the mediation of social reality. The Critique of the Political Economy of the Press attributes it to the modes of production of the press in capitalist systems. Some cultural theorists, on the other hand, claim that the press cannot adequately represent reality because reality is non-representable. Building upon but superseding these approaches, this article affirms that the illusion of the free press is not merely a false idea of what the press really is. The illusion is – in contrast – an epistemological necessity: we need the illusion of a free press in order to retain the belief of a correspondence between the world that appears through the press and that same world as it is in itself.

What is press freedom now? New media, gatekeepers, and the old principles of the law

The concept of media freedom, in modern European philosophical and legal thinking, is constantly changing. Originally, back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it did not necessarily mean more than the exclusion of state intervention prior to publication, while still allowing prosecutions to begin after publication. By the twentieth century, in the age of mass media, this narrow definition was no longer sustainable. With the recognition in various jurisdictions of the idea that the media have a fundamental task in the democratic public sphere, these states needed to draw the respective conclusions which, in turn, affected the concept of media freedom. This concept is about to be redefined once again, thanks to new participants that have become active players in transmitting various content to the general public. In this paper we wish to examine whether it is justified to rethink the notion of media freedom, having regard to these new participants. In part 1, we examine the differences between freedom of speech and media freedom (freedom of the press) in order to identify the content of the currently used notion of ‘media freedom’. Part 2 provides an overview of the different elements of the legal notion of ‘media’. In part 3 we shall reveal who might be the holders of the right to media freedom, which new players might claim protection under this right and the unique tasks they play in the operation of the democratic public sphere. Part 4 discusses the relationship between the internet and the democratic public sphere, and briefly assesses the fading hopes that were present at the dawn of the internet age. In part 5 we briefly draw possible conclusions from the previous parts with respect to the future role of the state.

Contemplating Democracy without the Press

Changes in society and technology are altering the roles and functions of the press in society and its centrality to democratic functioning. This article consider the impact of that change, whether the press is central to democracy and practice, whether and how other communication systems and practices can take on the previous roles of the press.

Freedom of the press and oppression of journalists

This paper was published in Le Mauricien – Forum newspaper. It is about freedom of the press. It is well known that journalists and editorialists are being oppressed in some totalitarian countries. In addition to that, they are not immune from over-zealous judicial opinions fouled with bias, besides adverse public opinions. As such journalism is a profession that is extremely vulnerable to risks, victimisations, moral harrassment, and condemnations.