Press freedom can be a very fragile flower indeed if journalists
and the public are not vigilant. Press freedom often acts as a kind of
bellwether of the direction an array of political and social freedoms
are taking. Such freedoms are not privileges but rights. Anyone who
interferes with these rights, whatever their motives may be, threatens
the whole system with serious and permanent damage. If the press is
restricted by government we will find ourselves on the slippery slope
to authoritarianism. The media must be freed from the fetters of
governments which see no role for it beyond entertainment and slavish
obedience to its policies. In this age of globalisation of information
and telecommunications technology, the news media is becoming
increasingly privileged and powerful. If society demands that the
media becomes more accountable, then it is a matter of answering the
question -- who is watching the watchdog? To win the public trust
in a democracy, the media can no longer cling to ‘traditional catch
cries’ about a free press. The media must be prepared to reevaluate
the substance of those catch cries and reexamine their own operations
and the nature of the implicit contract they make with their audiences.
Press freedom is like tending a garden, it’s never done. It continually
has to be nurtured and cultivated and the citizenry has to value it. It’s
one of those things that can slip away if we don’t tend to it.