Free Press and National Development

THE PAPER is to an important extent written

with people if not by them; and in the sense
that it is written for them, this can be defined,
quite reasonably, in terms of an interest larger
than the newspaper itself: the interest of the
changing society.
 The press is alternately a cause and an
effect of the growth of intelligence among
the people. Its conductors are at once
learners and teachers.
 The press is diffused by the mighty of the
periodical press. (spread and distributed
through powerful medium of newspapers)
 The newspaper could be a “mighty power” in
relation to the people and the public mind.
The capacity to mold, influence public opinion
as opposed merely to inform, was perceived
as the key function and acts as the shaper of
the image of the modern reader.
 People in the know call the newspapers
supporting the party in power as
“administration papers”; those supporting the
opposition party as the “opposition papers”.
 While some papers are not exactly owned by
the parties, they are controlled or owned by
people or entities affiliated thereto or known
to be
sympathizers of the same.
 Other papers are said to be more or less
independent and publish items that are
“news” – regardless of their sources or
whoever may be hurt.
 The press is questionably the most powerful
instrument for forming public opinion, with
a prosperity to accept as true everything
that it presents.
 The press contributes to the formation of
public opinion in three ways: as a reporter
of events, as an exponent of ideas; and as a
weathercock.
1. As a reporter of events the press
furnishes the facts for the basis of public
opinion on a great variety of topics.
 The average reader who goes to the paper
for his information does not stop to think of
the forces that are behind them; generally
he does not read the facts with a
questioning, argumentative mind; he
accepts them with an ipso facto mental
attitude.
2. As an exponent of ideas, the press has no
equal in its effectiveness in a country of
newspapers and magazine readers.
 It counts with a numerous audience, with
some of the newspapers having a circulation
by the hundreds of thousands and with some
magazine readers reaching the million limit.
 With the propensity to accept everything
that is printed, the readers before they know
it have become subscribers to the idea. (the
idea may be the dismissal or resignation of a
public official, the defense of a man under
fire, appointment of a chief of police, the
justice system, etc.)
3. As a weathercock metaphorically, this
describes the changes as to the opinions or
actions according to prevailing trends or the
dominant opinion.
What is a free press?
In the context of a free press, there are two things
to consider: the conflict between the public’s
right to know, or it may be the public’s
curiosity to know, and on the other hand,
the right of the need of the government to
be able to deliberate confidently before
announcing a conclusion and in certain
circumstances, especially in its foreign
relations, the government’s right to a
measure of secrecy and dispatch.
 The conflict is perennial in the sense that
there is no abstract principle which resolves
it. The right of the press to know and the
right of the responsible authority to
withhold must co-exist.
 We have a continual tension between public
officials and reporters about the disclosure
of coming events, what is gong to be
announced, what policy is going to be
adopted, who is going to be appointed,
what will be said to a foreign government.
 There is also a conflict about what has
happened and why it happened and who
was responsible for its happening.
Crime and Punishment
An important aspect of this problem is in the
field of crime and punishment.
 The press is often in conflict with those
whose business it is to catch the guilty man
who has been arrested and given a fair trial.
 The trouble with crime and punishment as it
concerns the press is that it is too
interesting and too absorbing and too
convincing because it comes out of real life.
 Thus, the reporting of the news of crime
and punishment often runs against the
administration of justice.
The Reader’s Interests
Not every reader of every newspaper cares to
know about or could understand all the
activities of mankind.
 But there are some readers specialized in
some subject, who have to be alerted to
new developments of even the most
specialized activities. (financial, legal,
cooking specialists, art critics, fashion,
commercial, medical, theatrical, musical)
Commitment of a Journalist
This growing professionalism is the most
radical innovation since the press became free
of government control and censorship before
the imposition of martial law.
 For it introduces into the conscience of the
working journalist a commitment to seek
the truth which is independent and superior
to all his other commitments – his
commitment to publish newspaper that will
sell, his commitment to his political party,
his commitment even to promote the
policies of his government.
The Responsible Press
The first and most evident of the conflicts is
that between choosing, on the one hand, to
publish whatever most easily interests the
largest number of readers most quickly – that
is to say, yellow journalism – and, on the
other hand, to provide, even at a commercial
loss, an adequate supply of what the public
will in the long run need to know. This is
responsible journalism.
The Duties of the Newspapers
 Its purpose is not only to present and
project the news objectivity but to help its
readers to express themselves more
effectively, canalizing their aspirations,
making more articulate their demands.
 A newspaper should reflect the community
it serves – wants and all.
 When a mirror it holds to society reveals
neglect, injustice, inhumanity, ignorance, or
complacency, the mirror should not be
clouded but polished, so that these things
can be eradicated rather than ignored.
 From a wider perspective, the quality of the
newspaper is reflected in the editorial
policy. A newspaper has two sides to it.
1. It is a business and like any other business,
has to pay in the material sense in order to
live.
2. But it is much more than a business; it is an
institution. It reflects and it influences the
life of a whole community. It may even
affect wider destinies.
 It may educate, stimulate, assist, or it may
do the opposite.
 We believe in the tenet that the
fundamental requirements of a good
newspaper is quality of content.
 A good newspaper doing its duty will never
win in a popular contest. It may be popular
but it is respected. And newspaper’s
priceless asset is its integrity and the
reader’s confidence in it.
National Development
With the imposition of Martial Law on
September 21, 1972, the thrust of the mass
media in the Philippines was on national
development.
 The mass media was at the forefront of the
struggle for national economic growth – it
brought an insight into the full meaning of
“development” in a developing nation like
the Philippines under the news society: a
reformed society.
 The development media and the publishers
opted to play a major role in the transformation
of the “freest press” in the Third World.
 Newspaper represent an essential step on the
road to literacy. It is a gateway to a new life, and
the windows on the world beyond the horizon.
 The development media can always bridge the
gaps between the traditional and modern
changing society.
 The media can enforce social norms, can help
form tastes, can confer status on an individual;
and it can broaden the “policy dialogue”,
providing the two-way flow of information.