Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
The spirit and ideals of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution as well as con-
temporary English philosophy, influenced the development of democratic trends in Scandi-
navia. 3 Sweden got a kind of print freedom as early as 1766 4 which is considered as the
world’s oldest constitutional provision for freedom of expression. 5 By 1814, a new Nor-
wegian constitution guaranteed freedom of printing and publishing as well as freedom to
do business. From the 1830s, a trend appeared where discourses on matters in society
were moved from the king’s closed rooms to the public sphere. A strong growth of
associations as well as an increasing number of newspapers and political pamphlets,
contributed to an institutionalising of public discourse. 6
Press freedom became a hot issue as some newspapers in Norway by 1837
committed themselves to protecting their sources of information. Since authorities wanted
to maintain their monopoly of information, the Norwegian government imposed a rule of
confidentiality on its officials in 1845. That step surprised Denmark and Sweden because it
was considered as a serious setback for democratisation. There followed debates on ethical
matters with such questions as ‘what is the difference between law and morality?’, and
‘what is privacy?’, or ‘what is of public interests?’ being raised 7 The debate started a
continuing process that shapes the press’ code of conduct.
The next phase was the establishment of press associations which institutionalised
instruments that promoted the interests of the press. The numerous organisations indicates
that ‘interests of the press’ were not one coherent subject. These organisations had
different aims, such as editorial interests (in contradiction to business), education and terms
of employment as well as political and regional purposes. The variety of media
3 Ibid., pp. 26, 38-39 and 66.
4 Statens Forvaltningstjeneste, Norges offentlige utredninger : NOU 2003:30 : Ny offentlighetslov (Oslo:
Statens Forvaltningstjeneste, 2003), section 4.2.2.
5 Ogundimu, Folu Folarin, “Media and Democracy in Twenty-First-Century Africa” in Hydén, Göran, Leslie,
Michael and Ogundimu, Folu F., Media and Democracy in Africa (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers,
2002), p. 218.
6 Eide, Den redigerende makt, pp. 18 and 31-37.
7 Ibid., pp. 45-50.
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