A Free Press

Posted by Colin Harvey Nov 10, 2009

In theory, we live in a democracy. We can choose our leaders every four or five years (or seven in France) --from a narrow range of options-- but we have that choice. How we choose those leaders is determined by what we believe. That comes from what we learn, from education or through the mass media –including this blog. That’s why freedom of the press is important. A ‘Free’ Press is independent of government control. It is however, not necessarily free of all influences.

Yesterday the Sun ran the story of the woman whose son was killed in combat recently. The Prime Minister wrote her a letter of condolence (as he does all such families) and misspelt her son’s name.

It’s horrible to have your name misspelled at any time, let alone when you’re getting a letter of condolence. In Brown’s defence, the soldier’s surname was ‘Janes’ rather than the much more commonplace ‘James.’ I’m unsure that I wouldn’t have made the same mistake.

But today the story has moved on and Mrs Janes has ‘challenged’ policy on Afghanistan. Our Government is so sensitive to media portrayal that it often seems to make policy on the hoof, and we have a newspaper acting as a mouthpiece for a grieving mother – who presumably gains a moral authority the rest of us don’t have.

And the Sun newspaper? It’s owned by an Australian tycoon –not a British citizen—who has already declared that he will not endorse the party running the current Government. Perhaps Mr. Murdoch and his minions should come into the open and run for public office, if they wish to set government policy.

We have a press free of government influence; it’s a shame that we don’t have a government free of press influence –or rather of the tycoons who run it, seeking to set policy by the back door. Because if they’re endorsing ‘Dave,’ you can guarantee that they’ll want something in return.

This is a particularly Anglo-centric example, and many Americans complain that their news is even more simplistic. But the comparative subtlety of some British Mass Media is even more insidious. In theory, of course, the internet should allow us to sidestep such ideologues, but have you looked at Yahoo’s ‘News’ lately?