Question: What’s more important: a free press or ensuring social stability by, if necessary, curtailing a free press?
Answer: The world is divided. The BBC reports:
World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service.
Of those interviewed, 56% thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society.
But 40% said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press’s freedom to report news truthfully.
Perhaps these issues yield what some may consider surprising results due to the fact that the 21st century is wrought with special pressures for many societies. Aside from issues related to the Third World, there’s the issue of the growing political clout of religious communities within countries, the threat of terrorism, and a clamor in some countries to toss out entrenched parts of the establishment. The BBC goes on to report:
In most of the 14 countries surveyed, press freedom (including broadcasting) was considered more important than social stability.
The strongest endorsement came from North America and Western Europe, where up to 70% put freedom first, followed by Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa, with over 60%.
Not surprising…nor is this:
In India, Singapore and Russia, by contrast, more people favoured stability over press freedom.
In those countries, around 48% of respondents supported controls over the press to ensure peace and stability. Around 40% expressed the view that press freedom was more important.
Should the media in the U.S. feel safe and pleased with its showing?
HARDLY:
But some developed countries which strongly believed in press freedom were critical of their own media’s honesty and accuracy.
In the United States, Britain and Germany, only around 29% of those interviewed thought their media did a good job in reporting news accurately.
Conclusion? It would be accurate to conclude that, even in countries where press freedom is considered vital, press freedom remains one of the most vulnerable freedoms in societies and, most likely, will be one of the first to be curtailed if there were a grave national crisis and if higher-ups decided the press interfered with recovery or security goals.
ALSO OF INTEREST:
World Press Freedom Committee
World Association of Newspapers
U.S. Now Ranks 53rd In World Press Freedom Index
World Journalists Killed HERE and HERE
Government Threatens Press
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.