Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democratic societies. The phrase "freedom of the press" means that television, radio and other media can report the news without interference from the government. In addition it includes freedom of speech, or the rights of individuals to express their opinions without fear that the government will harass or arrest them for what they have said. Freedom of the press is an important part of the Universal Declaration of Human rights put forth by the United Nations (Wikipedia, 2005). It includes the entire process of producing news from gathering to writing, publishing, and distribution (Fink, 2002).
Freedom House, an organization dedicated to the monitoring of freedom of the press around the world, tracks which countries have the most effective rights supporting freedom of the press as well as those countries where rights have been eroded, and those countries where freedom of the press does not exist. Their standards are high and recently listed the United States as a country where rights to freedom of the press have eroded after journalist was jailed recently for not revealing sources (Goldfarb, 2005). They also noted recent setbacks in Pakistan, Kenya, Mexico and Venezuela (Goldfarb, 2005). Of particular concern in the United States was the case of Judith Miller. On July 6 of this year, She was put in jail after she refused to tell a grand jury the source of her information regarding who had revealed the name of a Central Intelligence Officer (Staff writers, 1999).
Overall, Freedom House looked at freedom of the press in 194 countries. They concluded that only 39% of the countries in the world, most in Western Europe, had full freedom of the press. They judged 26% of countries...
Freedom of Speech History of Case Gitlow v. New York Gitlow v.New York was a decision that was made by the supreme court of the United States on June 8, 1925 which ruled that the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States extended the reach of limitations of the federal government authority that that had been set in the First amendment. The specific provisions were protection of freedom of speech
Freedom of Association in Malaysia When one talks about the foundation of a powerful civil society, freedom of association is very important for the foundation along with the rule of law, freedom of religion, freedom of expression and free and competitive elections. Freedom of association is also an important part of the pluralistic democracy (Tekle, 2010). The previous communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe which had been, in the
"[T]here remains a distinction between autonomy, the ability to think for oneself, and self-expression, the communicating of one's thoughts to others. Both are important components of our interest in free speech" (Lichtenberg, 336). Still some believe that any infringement upon the media would diminish the amount of true information disseminated into society. Truth, though, is filled with ambiguity and is intangible -- the "truth" of the media story is based
S. citizens. In this program designed to help young ones value the freedoms they currently experience: according to Tyler Barnwell, stands for grievance, as in "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." which denotes religious freedom, Leslie Anne Hill, a Presbyterian, states: "means you don't have to follow a certain religion." stands for freedom of assembly, Sherri Jones states is "the right to get together with other people peaceably, but
The period of reconstruction was seen as a failure. WEB Dubois in his "Black Reconstruction in America" (1935) "The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." Eric Foner, in his assertion regarding the black perspective, "Reconstruction must be judged failure… it was a noble flawed experiment, the first attempt to introduce a genuine inter-racial democracy in the United States" (255-256). Other
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION plays an important role in the doctrines of human liberty. However not every country grants this right to its citizens. There are many countries in the world where freedom of expression is still a contentious issue and which have been categorized by Freedom House as not being entirely free. The United States of America is one country where the constitution gives every American the freedom of speech
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