Freedom of the Press and Anti-Corruption

2021 ◽  
pp. 261-296
Author(s):  
Mark Knights
Keyword(s):  
Press Freedom ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Press ◽  
At Home

Public discussion of corruption was very important in shaping cultural norms as well as scrutinising and pressing for the reform of Britain’s domestic and imperial administrations. The focus of this chapter is on the debates surrounding the nature and extent of the freedom of Britain’s precociously free press to expose corruption. The chapter argues that there was a close connection between justifications for anti-corruption and ideological defences of a free press: freedom of the press and freedom from corruption often went hand in hand. Some critics argued that the press should not be shackled by those in office whose desire to restrict it was rooted in a concern to screen themselves. But officials (in both domestic and imperial contexts) often had a very different view, seeing the press as seditious, libellous, and destructive of authority. This tension existed both at home and abroad for much of the period.

Freedom of the press and perceptions about government corruption

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Flavin ◽  
Fielding Montgomery
Keyword(s):  
Political Corruption ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Government Corruption ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

The media can play an important role in the relationship between citizens and their government by acting as a watchdog and providing timely information about malfeasance and corruption. We examine whether citizens’ perceptions of government corruption are closer to country experts’ assessments in countries where there are higher levels of press freedom. Using data on citizens’ perceptions of government corruption and country expert evaluations of levels of political corruption for over 100 countries, we present evidence that the relationship between expert measures of corruption and citizens’ perceptions is heightened as the level of press freedom increases across our sample. These findings suggest that a free press can play an important role in bringing corruption to light, educating citizens, and potentially allowing them to better hold their elected officials accountable.

The Last Call for Press Freedom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Guo
Keyword(s):  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Ideal

In the final years of the 1940s, China was to have its last chance to realize press freedom. This chapter builds on Chapter 6, exploring the calls for press freedom that emerged in the 1940s and that echoed changes in the domestic and international situation. These calls were aimed at achieving proponents’ own political interests rather than the ideal of press freedom as a human right in itself. The motivations behind the Chinese Communist Party’s advocacy of press freedom during those years are explored as well as the fears that made many Nationalists wary of a truly free press. ‘Freedom of the press’ had become an instrumental concept used for political purposes, where a free press was not the intended outcome.

scholarly journals PASANG SURUT KEBEBASAN PERS DI INDONESIA

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satrio Saptohadi
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
New Order ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
The Press

In the New Order of the press regulated by Law No. 11 Year 1966, Law No. 4 Year 1967 and Law no. 21 Year 1982 which is a product of the repressive Soeharto regime, whereas in the era of reform after the resignation of Suharto's life enacted press Law No. 40 Year 1999 about the Press is full of euphoria. During the New Order's authoritarian press system produces under the guide of Pancasila press system that is free press and responsible, to the effect of press freedom in a way that is very restrained by bridle and thrown into prison their anti-government . In the Reform era of the press leading up to the liberal press system that is with the euphoria of freedom that went too far because there is no regulation of the repressive provisions. Key words : New order, the reform era and freedom of the press.

PERSECUTION AND THE ART OF FREEDOM: ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FREE PRESS AND FREE SPEECH IN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-208
Author(s):  
Khalil M. Habib
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Alexis De Tocqueville ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Constituent Element ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Right ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractAccording to Tocqueville, the freedom of the press, which he treats as an extension of the freedom of speech, is a primary constituent element of liberty. Tocqueville treats the freedom of the press in relation to and as an extension of the right to assemble and govern one’s own affairs, both of which he argues are essential to preserving liberty in a free society. Although scholars acknowledge the importance of civil associations to liberty in Tocqueville’s political thought, they routinely ignore the importance he places on the freedom of the press and speech. His reflections on the importance of the free press and speech may help to shed light on the dangers of recent attempts to censor the press and speech.

Press Performance, Human Rights, and Private Power as a Threat

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Edwin Baker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Magic Bullet ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Government Power ◽  
The Press ◽  
Private Power

The essay concerns the manner private power threatens the proper democratic role of the press or mass media. But first, Part I examines two preliminary conceptual matters involved in locating this discussion in the context of a conference on private power as a threat to human rights: 1) the relation of human rights to private power in general. This relation is complicated due to fact that human rights can themselves be seen as the assertion of private power against government or against collective power while, depending on how conceptualized, human rights can be improperly threatened by private power even while private power operates in a generally lawful manner; 2) involves the relation of press freedom and human rights. Here I argue that human rights are ill-conceived if offered as embodying any particular right in respect to the press—more specifically, I argue that a free press is not a human right—but argue instead that an ideal media order that is embodied in a broad conception of free press provides the soil in which human rights can flourish and the armor that offers them protection. Both government power and private power are necessary for and constitute threats to these supportive roles of a free press.Political-legal theory—or in constitutional democracies, possibly constitutional theory—should offer some guide to how the tightrope between government as threat and government as source of protection against private threats ought to be walked. That is, the goal is to find both proper limits on government power and proper empowerment of government to respond to private threats. Part II examines the variety of private threats to the proper role of the press. It focuses on two forms of threats: first, market failures that can be expected in relatively normal functioning of the market; second, problems related to the purposeful use of concentrated economic power. Responsive policies are multiple—no magic bullet but varying different governmental (as well as private) responses are appropriate. However, Part III illustrates this point by considering only two types of governmental policies, both of which I have recently been involved in advocating: first, government promotion of dispersal of concentrated power by means of ownership rules and policies; second, tax subsidies in the form of tax credits for a significant portion of journalists salaries as a means to correct for underproduction of journalism on theory that this journalism generally produces significant positive externalities.

scholarly journals A day for freedom

1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-85
Author(s):  
Reporters Sans Frontieres
Keyword(s):  
Annual Report ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right

On 3 May 1996, International Press Freedom Day, Reporters Sans Frontieres published its seventh Annual report on freedom of the press throughout the world, which gave an account of infringements of the right to be informed in 149 countries.    

scholarly journals Freedom and The Role of The Press on Law Enforcement Reviewed in The Perspective of Law Number: 40 Of 1999, Concerning The Press

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satino Satino ◽  
Yuliana Yuli W ◽  
Iswahyuni Adil
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Republic

Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press is one of the legal regulations that have a role in efforts to realize a good life together. The struggle of the Indonesian press to achieve freedom was finally achieved after the enactment of Law Number 40 of 1999 concerning the Press. The purpose of this study is to find out how the freedom and role of the press in law enforcement are reviewed from the perspective of Law Number 40 of 1999, concerning the press. This study uses a sociological juridical method, the results of research conducted on real facts in society with the intent and purpose of finding facts, then proceeding with finding problems, ultimately leading to problem identification and leading to problem solving. The results of the research include the press trying to carry out its functions, rights, obligations, and roles, so the press must respect the human rights of everyone. The press has an important role in realizing Human Rights (HAM), as guaranteed in the Decree of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia Number: XVII/MPR/1998. Based on the results of the research above, it is necessary to uphold the freedom of the press in conveying public information in an honest and balanced manner and that freedom of the press is not absolute for the press alone, but to guarantee the rights of the public to obtain information. what happened in the context of realizing press freedom as contained in Law/040/1999 concerning the Press.

The Costumbrista Movement in Mexico

PMLA ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 290-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jefferson Rea Spell
Keyword(s):  
Mexico City ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Picaresque Novel ◽  
The Third ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
Literary Periodicals ◽  
The Press ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Educational Conditions

When the liberal journalist Fernández de Lizardi found himself barred from further discussion of political conditions, at the close of the first brief term of freedom of the press in Mexico in 1812, he turned to descriptions of manners and customs as a means of reaching his public, not with the intention of furnishing entertainment but, like Larra two decades later, with the hope of effecting reforms. Under cover of this type of material, which seemed perfectly harmless to the censors, he portrayed in his El Pensador mexicano, during 1813 and 1814, social and educational conditions as they then existed in the capital of the viceroyalty. When this avenue of expression was gradually closed to him after 1814 by the absolutist régime, Lizardi resorted to fiction; in his three realistic novels, picaresque in form but replete with costumbrista material, he accomplished for Mexico City what Mesonero Romanos futilely planned some years later to do for Madrid through the picaresque novel. Under the free press in 1820 Lizardi turned from fiction to a defense of the constitution; in El Conductor eléctrico he published many articles similar in tone and purpose to Miñano's Cartas, which appeared in Madrid in the same year; but he contributed nothing further toward the development of the satirical sketch on manners. When the more finished costumbrista article made its appearance in Mexico almost twenty years later, the revival of the form was due, not to native initiative, but to Spanish models. The Mexican literary periodicals in which these were published coincided both in content and in point of time with their Spanish prototypes; those in which fully developed costumbrista essays appear date, in the mother country from the opening, in Mexico from the close, of the third decade.

Freedom of the Press

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Lebovic
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Private Information ◽  
Press Freedom ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constitutional Right

According to the First Amendment of the US Constitution, Congress is barred from abridging the freedom of the press (“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”). In practice, the history of press freedom is far more complicated than this simple constitutional right suggests. Over time, the meaning of the First Amendment has changed greatly. The Supreme Court largely ignored the First Amendment until the 20th century, leaving the scope of press freedom to state courts and legislatures. Since World War I, jurisprudence has greatly expanded the types of publication protected from government interference. The press now has broad rights to publish criticism of public officials, salacious material, private information, national security secrets, and much else. To understand the shifting history of press freedom, however, it is important to understand not only the expansion of formal constitutional rights but also how those rights have been shaped by such factors as economic transformations in the newspaper industry, the evolution of professional standards in the press, and the broader political and cultural relations between politicians and the press.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document