Freedom of Press
Essay on the Freedom of the Press
Subrat Mangaraj
The Press, as identified with Newspapers, wields immense power in a democratic society. Dickens has called the Press "the mighty engine". So great is its influence that some have called it the Fourth Estate. Napoleon used to say— "Your hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." For, the press forms opinions, shapes movements and controls policies through well-informed criticism.
The most powerful autocrat is forced to take note of public opinion as reflected in a free press. That is why a regimented press is the instrument of autocracy, and a dictator deprives the press of its freedom.
A free press is the symbol of a free people. An independent, well-informed press is a powerful check on arbitrary governments and irresponsible administrators. For newspapers are agents of the public, which bring to the notice of the people acts of injustice or oppression, or mal-administration that would otherwise have remained hidden away from public knowledge. They augur misgovernment at a distance and sniff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze' (Burke). They exercise a constant vigilance on the rulers, which is salutary for all.
Nowadays it is difficult for the press to be free. Either a newspaper is controlled by some financial magnates entirely and it has to voice their views or it is the mouthpiece of a party, and it must think as the party might direct; or it is under the thumb of the government and in that case its usefulness is reduced and independence compromised.
For whoever controls it, necessarily limits its freedom by his own interests, i.e. calls the tune. In America, the great newspapers are in the bands of powerful financial syndicates; in England, they are in the hands of capitalists; in Russia they are mostly controlled by the government. But freedom of the press in each case depends on the way it reflects the will, the purpose of the people as a whole, in preference to
Subrat Mangaraj
The Press, as identified with Newspapers, wields immense power in a democratic society. Dickens has called the Press "the mighty engine". So great is its influence that some have called it the Fourth Estate. Napoleon used to say— "Your hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." For, the press forms opinions, shapes movements and controls policies through well-informed criticism.
The most powerful autocrat is forced to take note of public opinion as reflected in a free press. That is why a regimented press is the instrument of autocracy, and a dictator deprives the press of its freedom.
A free press is the symbol of a free people. An independent, well-informed press is a powerful check on arbitrary governments and irresponsible administrators. For newspapers are agents of the public, which bring to the notice of the people acts of injustice or oppression, or mal-administration that would otherwise have remained hidden away from public knowledge. They augur misgovernment at a distance and sniff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze' (Burke). They exercise a constant vigilance on the rulers, which is salutary for all.
Nowadays it is difficult for the press to be free. Either a newspaper is controlled by some financial magnates entirely and it has to voice their views or it is the mouthpiece of a party, and it must think as the party might direct; or it is under the thumb of the government and in that case its usefulness is reduced and independence compromised.
For whoever controls it, necessarily limits its freedom by his own interests, i.e. calls the tune. In America, the great newspapers are in the bands of powerful financial syndicates; in England, they are in the hands of capitalists; in Russia they are mostly controlled by the government. But freedom of the press in each case depends on the way it reflects the will, the purpose of the people as a whole, in preference to