Freedom of the Press

The ‘freedom of the press‘ means that newspapers and magazines can publish articles without any censorship or political interference from the Government. In Britain this has been a right since 1695.

It is not without its complexities, however. Editors are expected to be self-censoring in terms of libellous accusations, stories without evidence and intrusion into people’s privacy.  The ideal of the free flow of information is sometimes hard to achieve when faced with the pressure to make a profit, as the mainstream news publishers are, after all, big businesses. The similarity of wording in some stories also hint at a single feed and lack of real journalistic investigation.

The ‘freedom of the Press’, even with its deficiencies, does include the ability of  ‘alternative media’ organisations to put out articles on the internet, for instance, and it remains a basic principle of life in the UK.

(Image: Jon S at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)