Freedom of the Press/Conflicts with other Rights/Status

Freedom of the Press

What specific examples of hierarchies, manifestos, constitutions, or prioritized descriptions of rights cite this right’s high status? Low status? No status at all?

Freedom of the press is extremely entrenched in international law, demonstrating its high status. In 1644, John Milton began the discussion about freedom of the press in response to the British government having to approve each publication before it went to print. Before this time, media wasn’t common, so refuting such regulation didn’t make sense (Cunningham). In 1766, Sweden passed the first known act requiring freedom of the press (Cunningham). It was intended to prevent the Swedish government from having to approve each publication, much like Milton was advocating for in Britain a century earlier (Cunningham). Ten years later, this right appeared in the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776 and was later brought by Virginian James Madison to the United States Bill of Rights (Freedom of the press, 2018) .

Today, the protection of expression, media, and opinion is seen in conventions and declarations worldwide. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) has a wide reach and a broad expression of freedom as it is intended to apply to all people. Article 19 states “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 through any media and regardless of frontiers” (UDHR, 1948) . Although the UDHR is neither a treaty nor legally binding, it has heavily influenced the development of international human rights law (Australian Human Rights Commission). The UN has also signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a treaty that outlines rights that “derive from the inherent dignity of a person” (1966, Art. 19). Article 19 of the ICCPR (1966) outlines the freedom of expression, explicitly calling out the right to freely “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.” Article 5 of the UN’s 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination explicitly expands this right to all people.

Regional supranational organizations have also called out this right explicitly. In 1953, the Council of Europe (which contains more member states than the European Union) adopted the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). Article 10 of the ECHR (1950) says the right of free expression “shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.” The European Union has also adopted the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (2009) , which states in Article 11 “the freedom and pluralism of media shall be respected.” The African Union and Organization of American States (OAS) took similar steps in 1981 and 1969, respectively, with Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, also called the Pact of San Jose. These freedoms were reaffirmed in 2001 with a joint statement between the UN, OAS, and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and again by the OSCE in the 2003 Amsterdam Recommendations.

At a state level, there are two extremes along a spectrum of free expression and press: Egypt and Norway. In Egypt, the 2014 constitution protects freedom of the press, though it is not protected in practice – government implemented censorship, imprisonment of journalists, and closures of media outlets are all prominent (Press freedom in Egypt, 2019) . Moreover, since 2015, journalists have been restricted to telling the “official” story rather than the real one (Egypt, 2021) . In Norway, there is a yearly report on the freedom of the press and expression, with the main complaints resulting from online government meetings, limiting press access (Norway, 2021) . The United States is between these two states, where freedom of the press is a highly respected right from the First Amendment of the Constitution and is fervently protected with limited exceptions usually resulting from Supreme Court decisions. Even so, today media freedom is limited due to distrust of “mainstream” sources and the loss of local news (United States, 2021) . Even local government recognizes the importance of this right, demonstrated by the 2019 passage of Queensland, Australia’s Human Rights Act.

References:

African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. African Union. June 1, 1981. https://au.int/en/treaties/african-charter-human-and-peoples-rights

American Convention on Human Rights. Organization of American States. Nov. 22, 1969. http://www.oas.org/en/sla/dil/inter_american_treaties_A-41_charter_OAS.asp

Amsterdam Recommendations. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. June 14, 2003. https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/4/a/41903. pdf

Australian Human Rights Commission. (n.d.) What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/what-universal-declaration-human-rights

Cunningham. (n.d.) Brief history of press freedom, A. Britannica. Retrieved Sept. 3, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/story/250-years-of-press-freedom

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Dec. 1, 2009. https://fra.europa.eu/en/eu-charter

Egypt. (2021) . Reporters without Borders. Retrieved Sept. 8, 2021, from https://rsf.org/en/taxonomy/term/156

European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Council of Europe. Nov. 4, 1950. https://www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf

Freedom of the press. (2018, Aug. 21). History.com. Retrieved Sept. 3, 2021, from https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/freedom-of-the-press

Human Rights Act. Queensland Legislative Assembly. Mar. 7, 2019. Retrieved Sept. 3, 2021, from https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/act-2019- 005

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Dec. 21, 1965. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CERD.aspx

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. UNGA. Dec. 16, 1996. https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx

Norway. (2021) . Reporters without Borders. Retrieved Sept. 8, 2021, from https://rsf.org/en/norway

Tahir Institute for Middle East Policy. (2019, May 24). Press freedom in Egypt. https://timep.org/reports-briefings/timep-briefs/timep-brief-press-freedom-in-egypt/

United States. (2021) . Reporters without Borders. Retrieved Sept. 8, 2021, from https://rsf.org/en/united-states

Universal Declaration on Human Rights. UNGA. Dec. 10, 1948. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

U.S. Constitution. Amendment I. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript