Freedom of The Press

‘Freedom of The Press’ in other words ‘Freedom of the Media‘ is the form of expressing and communicating one’s view in different mediums like print and electronic media particularly the published material which  is considered a Right to Exhibit Freely.

In America Freedom of States is formed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution that mentions "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.". Therefore, there need to be a complete non-interference of the state into the speech and expression of the media which first came into existence around 1780’s in the form of newspaper expanding largely ever since.

However, limits are imposed to the rights to the freedom of speech by the American Supreme court which numerously expressed the view that unpopular speech is controlled fully by the First Amendment Protection.

The media does the great job in portraying the details facts and information of a particular issue to the people of the country. There by bringing in the concealed facts of the society. However, they should be protective of passing on the information correctly and without any bias. This is because otherwise the reputation of the individual or society may be perilous which might call for the reputation of the country as a whole. Therefore the media’s fact portraying should be thoroughly investigative and carefully depicted in words.

In a fruitful Democracy, Freedom of views is possible as it allows  an individual to  communicate one’s idea and view with a free flow restricting them from not making their informed decisions. India is a democratic system wherein each individual can vote to elect their preferred representative. Although, the Constitution of India does not particularly state the Freedom of Press yet The Preamble of Indian Constitution guarantees every citizen of India the right of Expression. The Constitution of India, amongst six freedoms; guarantees under Article 19  the freedom of speech and expression.  The media played a vital role in India in projecting the information of economic and social evils of the society.  To site some example, they have reported about the devastating poverty encircling the country, about the corruption of the political and beauracratic  entity  in the country, about the honor  killings of the farmers for debts particularly in Khap panchayats etc. for which the media of India need to be lauded. Openness is demanded by Democracy and transparency clears the darkness of the free society and undoubtedly the sunlight is the best repellent for infection. 

Freedom House an US non-profit based entity submits a yearly report which evaluates the quantum of Freedom and Editorial liberty got by the press of each nation and specific conflict areas throughout the world. Therein, the degree of Freedom of each nation is evaluated accordingly in scale from 1(most free) to 100 ( least free ). Accordingly as per their scores  the Nations are termed as “ Free”, “ Partly Free “or“ Not Free“ 

Any Country with a  transparent society  need to have provisions of free expression so that the individual can open his heart with his independent opinion and contribute to the Nation’s thought process mechanism and thought bank. This will add up to the planning of Nation building for the future making of advanced Digital and technological country.

According to me, the important part that should be played by the Media in India today would be to felicitate the citizen in the fight against poverty, unemployment, all other social evils in order to build India a scientific modern, powerful and industrial state.  

In today’s real world which is cruel and harsh Media has a very important role to play transparently and without any restrictions or forceful obstructions from the state.

English Grammar and Composition

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