Which Freedom of the Press?: The Press Conceived as an 'Open Forum' or a 'Privileged Watchdog'

Jens Elo Rytter

Which Freedom of the Press? The Press Conceived as an 'Open Forum' or a 'Privileged Watchdog'

Faculty of Law

Abstract

The article surveys the historical and current meaning of "Freedom of the Press" in constitutional and human rights law. Two different conceptions exist, the narrow one defining freedom of the press as the freedom of every one to publish without prior restraint, the broader one defining it as a privileged freedom of the organised press to gather and report on information of public interest. These two conceptions have very different answers to the question of whether the press should enjoy some privilege to be exempt from ordinary legislation when such legislation restricts the access of the press to inform the public on matters of public interest.

Translated title of the contribution	Hvilken pressefrihed?: Pressen forstået om et 'åbent forum' eller en 'privilegeret vagthund'
Original language	English
Book series	Scandinavian Studies in Law
Volume	55
Pages (from-to)	181-209
Number of pages	29
ISSN	0085-5944
Publication status	Published - 2010

Cite this

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AB - The article surveys the historical and current meaning of "Freedom of the Press" in constitutional and human rights law. Two different conceptions exist, the narrow one defining freedom of the press as the freedom of every one to publish without prior restraint, the broader one defining it as a privileged freedom of the organised press to gather and report on information of public interest. These two conceptions have very different answers to the question of whether the press should enjoy some privilege to be exempt from ordinary legislation when such legislation restricts the access of the press to inform the public on matters of public interest.

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