Free Press and Deliberative Democracy  

Oleh:

Ward, Stephen J. A.

Jenis: Article from Books - E-Book
Dalam koleksi: Ethics and the Media: An Introduction, page 88-117.
Topik: Freedom and the Turn to Ethics; The Need for Ethics; Journalism and Democracy
Fulltext: Free Press and Deliberative Democracy.pdf (321.01KB)

Isi artikel

In late 2010, the web site WikiLeaks provided online access to hundreds of con? dential cables sent by American diplomats abroad to the US government, obtained from an unnamed source. They contained candid observations about world leaders and an analysis of the political motivations of countries from North Korea to Iran. Major news organizations used the cables as the basis of news stories. The web site’s actions caused a worldwide debate on whether journalists, news media, and web sites should publish secret documents. Julian Assange, the director of the web site, argued that the release of the embarrassing and sensitive documents was the proper work of a free press. Journalists, he noted, have long exercised their freedom to publish con? dential documents so that they can ful? l their obligation to inform the public about what their governments are doing in secret. We will examine the WikiLeaks case in greater detail in Chapter 5 . I introduce the controversy over the web site to make the following point: many journalists hold the freedom to publish as the primary value in jour- nalism. Yesterday and today, journalists and citizens defend the freedom to publish without undue restraint or legal restrictions. Media freedom falls under freedom of expression, which is regarded as a condition of democracy. Since democratic societies evolve, the link between a free press and democracy requires constant scrutiny, clari? cation, and reformulation. This is a task for media ethics. Since the press is a central channel for public information and debate, issues of press freedom appear in many guises in numerous areas of society. Questions about the value and limits of a free press arise when citizens use web sites to deny the Holocaust or spread pornography; when the public considers the regulation of advertising or violent video games.

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