Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
of the press. However, what the Soviets meant was freedom from capital, careerism, and
bourgeois archaic individualism. 14
Another early influential thinker on press freedom is John Stuart Mill. His “Essay
on Liberty” in 1859 has been credited as one of the founding documents of the liberalism.
Mill was concerned with plurality, including the right to be wrong and make mistakes. The
many sides of truth was among his reasons for need of free expression. He described that
right as one of the most sacred. 15 Mill is much referred in Western as well as in African
writings which indicate his global impact on the notion of press freedom. 16
A twin concept of press freedom is ‘freedom of expression’ which is a cornerstone
in democracy. The concepts press freedom and freedom of expression seem to overlap
almost completely. Many text books mix these without clear distinctions but press freedom
is among the means or conditions for a satisfactory working freedom of expression. Hence,
these concepts are two sides of the same issue. 17
In terms of democracy, a major point is that press freedom belongs to the public,
not to the media corporates. If information is a public good, a necessity for democratic
processes, the purpose for press freedom is that the press should get conditions to serve the
public. 18
A legal description of press freedom gives attention to four aspects of press free-
dom. The case studies from Scandinavia and East Africa will be organised in accordance to
this classification. One aspect is content-neutral regulations arrangements. These influence
the media indirectly, for instance, subsidies, customs, taxation, as well as anticompetition
14
Siebert, Peterson and Schramm, Four Theories of the Press, pp. 125-126.
15
Altschull, From Milton to McLuhan, pp. 161-172.
16
Ogbondah, Chris W., “Media Laws in Political Transition” in Hydén, Göran, Leslie, Michael and
Ogundimu, Folu F., Media and Democracy in Africa (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2002), p. 58;
and Makali, David (ed.), Media Law and Practice : The Kenyan Jurisprudence (Nairobi: Phoenix
Publishers, 2003), p. 25.
17
Krug, Peter and Price, Monroe E., “The Legal Environment for News Media” in World Bank, The Right
To Tell : The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development (Washington: The World Bank/WBI
Development Studies, 2002), p. 195.
18
Ibid., p. 194.
17