Weekly Blog - 21 August 2023 - Freedom of the Media
Freedom of the media
Every week on the TV, radio, in the newspapers and online we see journalists doing a great and important job, bringing important stories to public attention, exposing injustice, and holding leaders accountable to the public. Unfortunately, every week we also see journalists prying into the private lives of the famous, and damning the reputations of those accused of crimes, often falsely, long before they have been found guilty. This week in Arise’s weekly blog we consider how we should balance the important principle of freedom of the press, with the equally important principle of protecting the innocent from slander, false accusation and invasions of privacy.
The Bible is clear that all national authorities, everywhere, should govern well with justice and respect for the freedoms and rights of the governed. In one early example, Moses reminds the Israelites that under God’s authority he “took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you – as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly’” (Deut 1: 15 – 16). In our modern world, a free media is a crucial part of such good governance, as one of the strongest mechanisms we have to hold governments and other large institutions such as big business, trade unions, public bodies and charities to account. It has proved to be essential for maintaining and strengthening democracy, human rights and free societies over and over again. The dedicated and brave journalists who pursue such a calling exposing corruption, the misuse of power, and promoting transparency and accountability to the public deserve our praise and thanks. Freedom of the media must be protected and maintained in every nation.
However, this must also be balanced with laws against slander and invasion of privacy, so the details of people’s private lives which have no legitimate public interest are protected from intrusion. The Bible tells us, “Do not go about spreading slander among your people” (Lev 19: 16) and that we should “Have nothing to do with a false charge” (Ex 23: 7). Thus, it should be possible to prosecute the media for inaccurate, unfair and malicious allegations, and invasion of privacy. The media must give the same amount and level of coverage to retracting a false story as they gave to initially airing it, and allow the aggrieved party to produce that content if they so wish, without any editorial control. Similarly, the private lives of the famous should be off limits. They are entitled to have a private life. Gossip over who has had an affair with who is not in the public interest and entirely different from legitimate probing into corruption or law breaking amongst public figures or the famous.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the first of two major international UN instruments which operationalise the crucial Universal Declaration of Human Rights) captures this balance well when it states that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” But that this right of media freedom “carries with it special duties and responsibilities” including “respect of the rights or reputations of others”.[1]
Exactly the same laws and principles should also be applied to modern online social media platforms. Thus, genuine freedom of information and expression should be preserved on social media. But it should be possible to prosecute both the platforms themselves and their users for inaccurate, unfair and malicious allegations, invasion of privacy, or threats and abuse.
So, as we see, it is crucially important to protect the freedom of the media to conduct legitimate investigations that are in the public interest, whilst also protecting people from invasion of privacy, slander and false accusation. One of the things a major piece of research from Arise, the Arise Manifesto, looks at in further detail is how as a society we can get this crucial balance right (Arise Manifesto, pg 105 – 106).
Find out more
Find out more about how God is at work in the world, and the role we all have to play in that work, in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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[1] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, UN, (1966), Article 19, www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/ccpr.pdf