Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

   "Freedom of the Press belongs only to those who own one."

1.  The article addresses directly the mass media in
India -- not world-wide.
2.  The article appears to address only mass
market newspapers -- not radio or TV broadcasting,
not books or other commercial cultural products, and
not the Internet (worth mentioning since it is organised
and funded differently from the way the traditional mass
media are organised and funded.)

Examples of what it says:
3.  "The media barons act in the most irresponsible and
unprofessional ways. The same newspaper that curses a
rapist on the first page, prints offensive pictures and semi-nude
models on the third. They generate their own content, create
their own stereotypes and always intervene in state matters
to gain more power and control."

4.  "Media is supposed to be the watchdog and guard the society,
the people behind the real enforcing agencies. Its role as such is
more like an active monitor who restricts any undue consequences
and disorder."

Comments.
A.  The comments quoted above are unoriginal, i.e. say
nothing that was not published 50 years ago in The New
Yorker by A.J. Liebling, and read 50 years ago and
continually by students in journalism schools etc.
B.  The article takes for granted certain ideals e..g. the
"watchdog" role of newspapers or other media:  but
seems not to appreciate how these ideals actually
work in society, e.g. how controlling editors allocate
space (between politics, crime and pin-ups) and how
editors deal with other social policemen as well as
with their readers and advertisers.   There is a lot in
print about this too, e.g. memoirs of newspaper and
radio editors, TV executives etc.
C.  Although vernacular languages are one medium
of the media (the others being still and moving pictures)
there is no allusion to what is already in the library
concerning this theme (whether by Lenin or George Orwell.)