Name: SREERAM SAI PRANITHA

Academic status: BBA LLB [ First Year]

KL (Deemed to be) University, Guntur
Mail ID: saipranithasreeram@gmail.com
Contact: 9030453644

Summary
The backbone of any democracy is an independent and responsible media. Media has a solemn
responsibility or obligation to present the true state of affairs. It is like a mirror, which shows us
the bare truth and harsh realities of life. Access to media is access to public opinion, so essential to
protect democratic institutions.

FREEDOM OF PRESS IN DEMOCRATIC

STATE
ABSTRACT
Future of truth relies on freedom of press. Freedom of the press is an
important wheel of democracy. In fact, the press is the great medium of communication. Its
objective is not merely supplying information but to educate, enlighten, empower the
people. Such a great institution of communication is now-a-days detoriating. Due to
“POLITICAL MONOPOLY OF MEDIA”. Influence of political leaders in press media has
increased. And they are taking advantage of it and producing false information which is
advantageous to them. This leads to falsification, as a result truth is being suppressed.

INTRODUCTION
In society, millions are exposed to a variety of messages each
day. Every community consists of groups with diverse backgrounds of social
class, economic status and potential or religious affiliations. Society needs
some communication system so its various organisations may perform their
designated functions. Communication is a process of sharing or exchange of
ideas, information, knowledge, attitude or feeling among two or more persons
through certain signs and symbols.
Media came into existence in 1780 with the introduction of
a newspaper namely The Bengal Gazette and since then it has matured leaps
and bounds. Media has a solemn responsibility or obligation to present the
true situation. It has been playing a significant role in shaping human minds.

MASS MEDIA
‘Mass’ means ‘enormous numbers of people’. ‘Media’ (plural of
‘medium’) means ‘that by something is done’. ‘Mass media’ means as the
name suggests, media which reach the mass spread over a vast area
simultaneously. Any media that multiplies messages and takes it to many
people simultaneously is called ‘mass media’.

IMPACT OF MEDIA ON DEMOCRACY

 The backbone of any democracy is an independent and
responsible media. Media plays a crucial role in shaping a healthy democracy.
The word “democracy” comes from two Greek words that is “demos” (people)
and “kratos” (rule). It is like a mirror, which shows us the bare truth and harsh
realities of life. Access to media is access to public opinion, so essential to
protect and preserve democratic institutions. It is advantageous to both the
leaders and masses. Leader can address masses depending upon their
convenience. One of the chief advantages of media access is that it helps to
correct distortions in facts, views and attitudes.
The media’s most key role in democracy is first, it ensures that
citizens make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of
ignorance or misinformation. Second, information serves a “checking function”
by ensuring that elected representatives uphold their oaths of office and carry
out the wishes of those who elected them.

INFLUENCE OF MEDIA ON GOVERNMENT

Media can make and unmake the government.
Example- 1977 General elections in India, where a political party ruled as a
monarch was ruled out and non – congress government came into existence.
Media have long had a voice and a role in politics. The media supplies
information to the public by its reporting of and commentary upon the
proceedings within the Parliament, the operations of the Government, and the
views and alternate policies of the opposition. Freedom of Press is the way of
social and political inter-course.
Media sometimes highlights certain problems which
state may not aware of. As in the case of Gulzarilal Nanda, a 94-year-old man
was thrown out of a rented house by the property owner for not paying the
rent. The old man took his belongings inside. A journalist passing by stopped
and saw the whole scene. He thought it would be useful to publish the matter
in his newspaper. The journalist went and told his press owner about the
incident. The owner of the press looked at the pictures and was shocked. He
asked the journalist, “did he know the old man”? The journalist said no.
The next day the big news appeared on the front page of the
newspaper. The title was “Gulzarilal Nanda, the former Prime Minister of India,
leading a miserable life”. The next day the Prime Minister sent ministers and
officials with a fleet of vehicles to their homes. By the above example, we can
understand the significance and distinguished role of media, in bringing the
unknown issues bright into the light.
The main object of press media is transmission of information.
However, media is not only mere source of information, but to enlighten,
educate, empower, and to arouse awareness of different issues within the
masses. Media also influences electorates. Media cannot be passive, though
government, representatives may be passive. If media is dynamic,
automatically the state will be alert.
IMPORTANCE OF FREE MEDIA
Free media promotes open discussion of ideas that
allows individuals to fully take part in political life, making informed decisions
and strengthening society as a result – especially in a large democracy such as
India. With free media, people will be able to exercise their rights as
questioning decisions of government. Such an environment can be created
solitary when freedom of press is achieved.
Hence, Media can be rightly considered as the fourth
pillar of democracy, the other three being legislature, executive and judiciary.

FREEDOM OF PRESS
“Freedom of Press” means absence of interference by the
state except as far as it is authorised by the constitution and by law.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
provides that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers”.
Lord Mansfield says, “The liberty of the press consists in printing
without any license subject to the consequences of law”. The liberty of press
means liberty to print and publish what one pleases, without earlier
permission.
 In 1950, the Supreme Court in Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras
observed that freedom of the press lay at the foundation of all democratic
organisations.
Presently, the fundamental right to look for and disseminate
information through an independent press is under attack, and part of the
assault has come from an unexpected source. According to Freedom House’s in
the World data “media freedom has been deteriorating around the world over
the past decade, with few norms of repression taking hold in open societies
and, authoritarian states alike”.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF FREEDOM OF PRESS

MEDIA
The Preamble of constitution of India promotes, Liberty of
belief, faith, expression, thought, and worship, liberty of expression is
guaranteed as a fundamental right. The constitution Part lll Article 19 (1) (a),
provides that all citizens shall have a right to freedom of speech and
expression. Citizen under Article 19 means only a natural person and not legal
person and aliens. Freedom of speech and expression includes freedom of
press.
Dr. Ambedkar, in his speech in Constituent Assembly
Debates says, “The press has no special rights which are not to be given or
which are not to be exercised by the citizens in his individual capacity. The
editor of a press or the manager are merely exercising the right of expression,
and therefore, no special mention is necessary of the freedom of the press”.
The fundamental principle involved in the right of
freedom of speech and expression is the ‘people’s right to know’. In
democratic countries with the participation of the people in the
administration, Governments functions with more cautious in their actions.

REASONABLE RESTRICTION ON THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH

AND EXPRESSION
Article 19(2) states that laws made by state to impose
restrictions on freedom of press and expression should be reasonable. It is for
the courts to decide as to what is reasonable. The courts power in examining
the question of reasonableness is unlimited. The court must determine the
reasonableness of a restriction by objective standard and not by subjective
one.
In Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, [AIR 1978 SC 597], the
Supreme Court held that if the state action sets up barriers to its citizens
freedom of expression in any country in the world, it will be taken as the
infringement or violation of the freedom of speech and expression, guaranteed
by Article 19 (1) (a).
And some examples on which basis there will be reasonable
restrictions are like – the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the
state, public order, in relation to contempt of court, defamation, incitement to
an offence, decency or morality, friendly relations with foreign states, etc.

ETHICS/ VIRTUES OF PRESS MEDIA

 Truth and Accuracy
 Independence
 Fairness and Impartiality
 Humanity
 Accountability
Apart from the above discussed, the three important
virtues of media that media follows are
 Transparency
 Neutrality
 Credibility

FUTURE OF TRUTH
As above said, media has a solemn responsibility or
obligation to present the truth. But unexpectedly, the news media and the
government are entwined in a malicious circle of mutual manipulation,
mythmaking, and self- interest. Too often, the crises are not really crises but
not joint fabrications. The two institutions have become so ensnared in a
symbiotic wed of lies that the news media are unable to tell the public what
is true and the government is unable to govern effectively.
News media is no longer seen as an arbitrator of the ‘real
news’. Media is alleged to be echo-chamber of the dominant political class.
Thus, News Media have lost creditability due to complicit and motivated
reporting, which has become a source of fake news.
By and large, the media strive to tell the truth, but what if
the ‘truth’ as they know it consist of distorted facts? The unavoidable result
is that they repeat lies. Elected leaders in many democracies, who should
be press freedoms staunchest defenders, have made explicit attempts to
silence critical media voices and strengthen outlets that serve up favourable
coverage.
In some of the most influential democracies in the world, large
segments of the population are no longer receiving unbiased news and
information. This is not because journalists are being kept in jail, as may
occur in authoritarian settings. As a result, truth is going into dark. Some of
the main reasons for falsification are- regulatory and financial pressure,
common methods include government- backed ownership changes, and
public denunciations of honest journalists.
Some of the incidents where we can observe falsification are,
one of the articles published by Times Now is, after periodic skirmishes
between Indian and Chinese troops at the Galwan valley in Ladakh since
May, tensions between the two nations reached an all-time high in June
when clashes turned fatal with the loss of 20 Indian soldiers and an
unknown number of Chinese soldiers. Following this incident, media was
flooded with fake news around the conflict. At the height of the conflict, we
witnessed two occasions when the Indian media pit out misinformation on
China. And another example is THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE on November 13,
2022 published an article that “Indian media exposed for spreading fake
news about Pakistani’s role in IIOJK”.
Incidents of circulation of “false/fake news, a crime under the
Indian Penal Code, saw nearly a three- fold rise in 2020 over 2019,
according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau. Fake news affects
free speech and informed choices of the subjects of the country, leading to
the hijacking of democracy.
 Usually, fake news is created to either influence people’s
views, push a political agenda or cause confusion. In the recent Karnataka
Assembly elections (2018) fake news about rival parties and candidates
flooded the media.
Presently, there is interference of political parties into
the legitimate activities of the media. Pressure and influence of media of
political leaders are widely used, as a result truth is being suppressed. Due
to undue influence media is not presenting clear picture of what is
happening really in this world? Therefore, people are misguided by the
coloured picture. The government must bring some measures to stop this
falsification, but government is also the part of it. So, we can’t do anything.
There is one way to regulate falsification, as if all the people in society must
get awareness about it and they must start a revolt or question the
government. Then we can put an end for this.

CONCLUSION
As we can conclude from the earlier statements, the press
has a huge responsibility on their shoulders. They need to be vigilant and
honest. And a press can easily manipulate the public’s opinion. This is why
we need responsible journalism to refrain the media from reporting false
facts which may harm the harmony and peace of a country.

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If

you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed”.
- MARK TWAIN

“MEDIA INFLUENCES THE BRAIN NOT ONLY

EYES”

REFERENCES
 Media Law by Dr. S.R. MYNENI
 Constitutional Law of India by Dr. J.N. PANDEY
 Drishti IAS website
 The Hindu News Paper
 Times Now News Article
 The Express Tribune News Article