Why is a free press important to a democracy?
1 Answer
The free press is the way vital information about government priorities and representatives makes its way to voters.
Explanation:
The United States is a democratic republic - which is to say that citizens vote for representatives (i.e. the democratic part) and it's those representatives who do the work of government on a full time basis (i.e the republic part).
When it comes time for citizens to vote, upon what basis do people vote? The candidates running for office want votes and so do what they can to let the voters know who they are and what they stand for. They hold rallies, set up web sites, go door to door to meet voters, attend civic functions where they shake hands and kiss babies, and all the rest of it.
But for all of that, often times voters don't interact with candidates and so don't know who they are or what they stand for (I'm almost 50 and have never met a politician who was running for office). And so voters depend on the press to attend those meetings and rallies and tell us who the candidates and what they stand for.
Candidates, for all that they try to look good to voters, sometimes are doing bad things or have done so in the past. Naturally, a candidate will try to hide that from voters, or at least try to downplay it. It's the job of the press to reveal those things that candidates are trying to hide.
The press also have an important job in telling voters what it is that the people they voted for are doing. Are they doing what they said they'd do? Are they acting in a legal manner? Voters need to know so that they can either vote for that person again when they run again, or vote for someone else who will do a better job.
And what about the rest of the government? We have a right to know what the government is doing because we pay for that government through our tax dollars - is our money being spent in a responsible way?
It is the role of the free press to inform citizens about their government, their representatives, and their government's priorities - all things which are vital to know but difficult to find out without help.
So let's take a second and talk about a press that isn't free. A press that tells the citizens, the voters, not what is true, but what someone wants the voters to think. Press controlled by the government will report only good things about the government. Press controlled by corporations will report what they want people to know (by the way, just six corporations control 90% of the American media: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6). Which means voters aren't voting based on good information - they are voting based on what other interests want them to know and believe.
