BUILDING A FREE AND RESPONSIBLE PRESS THROUGHOUT THE COMMONWEALTH
A major new report on Commonwealth media law by the CPU Media Trust identifies the continued use of legislation and other measures to restrict the freedom of expression in the media, and it recommends steps for governments to take to protect and enhance this fundamental right, says a Member of the United Kingdom House of Lords who is also a leading U.K. media manager.
Lord Black of Brentwood, in
London. Lord Black has been a Conservative Member of the United Kingdom House of Lords since 2010. He chairs the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust. He is also the Executive Director of the Telegraph Media Group Limited and chairs the Press Standards Board of Finance Ltd which funds the United Kingdom’s Press Complaints Commission. The CPU Media Trust report “The Test of Democracy” can be downloaded from: http://www.cpu.org.uk/ MediaLawReport2012
Media freedom is a contentious subject for many Commonwealth Parliamentarians. It is of course a paradox that when Parliamentarians are in opposition, many vociferously defend the concept of media freedom; but once they get into government, they seek ways of muzzling the media. It’s a paradox that is as old as
democracy and one that is likely always to be with us. But it should not shroud the central issue that a free media is universally recognized as one of the building blocks of a democracy – emerging or established – and therefore needs to be nurtured and encouraged if governments across the Commonwealth are not to be held up to censure. Indeed, as the Commonwealth Press Union stated in its 1999 report – the first
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ever undertaken – on media freedom in the Commonwealth: “…securing the independence of the media in the Commonwealth is absolutely vital if the aims and ideals laid down in Harare in 1991 are to be adhered to. Whether in Nigeria or Uganda,
the U.K. or Canada, India or Malaysia, an independent, responsible press is the sine qua non of a properly functioning modern state.”1
Freedom of the press It is often said that a free media is not a “free” media; it is what is left of the copy by lawyers and by the law. But it is a concept which is considered to be so important that most constitutions enshrine it as a matter of course, not least the United States constitution which forms the basis of so many written
Lord Black of Brentwood
constitutions around the world today. The United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights specifically states, in Article 19: “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