Traditional freedom of the press theory

Traditional freedom of expression theory regards freedom of the press as a kind of freedom of speech, and makes no distinction. In fact, in practice, it is also difficult to distinguish. However, with the news media's function as an information circulation hub constantly strengthened, the freedom of the press has been given a wide range of meanings today. To sum up, the free circulation of all information is not limited to the freedom of sending news, but also includes the freedom of gathering, the freedom of conveying and the freedom of receiving news. It can be seen that the connotation of freedom of the press is not only advancing with the times, but its meaning is often different from region to region. Only using the traditional theory of freedom of speech can not fully explain why news organizations should be given a high degree of freedom.

the bud of new freedom

Justice P. Stewart of the United States Supreme Court believes that it will lose its meaning to interpret freedom of the press as freedom of speech. Today, freedom of the press is not an accessory of freedom of speech, but the foundation of freedom of thought and speech. Freedom of speech protects the basic rights of individuals, while freedom of the press is more reflected from an institutional right. "Freedom of the press, as an institutional theory, aims to make the news media play the role of supervising the government by protecting freedom of the press." Burke said in On the French Revolution that "the role of public opinion is inversely proportional to the number of people who abuse power. In order to prevent government power from corrupting, from Hobbes and Locke to Montesquieu, the theoretical construction of separation of powers and sovereignty of the people has been gradually formed and perfected in western political system thought, and it has been established and implemented in various countries at the same time. The essence of the separation of powers is to prevent the abuse of power by various government agencies, which embodies the principle of checks and balances. It relies on the power balance mechanism between government agencies, but things are often not so simple. As Jefferson said, no matter how good the political system is, it cannot guarantee that there will be no corruption of power, and the people are the only supervisors of the rulers; The government organization is huge and strict, while the people are in a weak and scattered position, which requires an institution that represents the general will of the people and plays a role in supervising the government: the news media.

formally formed

In November p>1974, Stewart put forward the theory of "the fourth power" from the perspective of law according to the important role of news media in modern society. He believes that the reason why the Constitution guarantees the freedom of the press is to ensure an organized news media, so that it can become the fourth power besides the three powers of the government, so as to supervise the government, prevent the government from abusing its power and give play to its institutional functions. He explained the freedom of the press in this way: "The original purpose of the Constitution to guarantee freedom of the press is to establish a fourth department outside the government to supervise the three official departments."

The fourth power theory emphasizes the freedom of speech stipulated by the press. It is different from the freedom of speech stipulated by the Constitution enjoyed by every individual who works in the news media. This is because the complexity of news media operation makes it vulnerable to government manipulation and pressure, thus hurting its autonomy. According to the above reasons, the fourth power theory points out that "the purpose of the Constitution to guarantee the freedom of the press is to maintain the autonomy of the media, so that the media can provide information, public opinion and entertainment programs that are not controlled or influenced by the government, promote people's concern for the work of the government, and discuss public affairs, so as to play the role of supervising the government."