 |
| Read the Socialist Standard |
"The primary freedom of the press lies in not
being a trade." This has also been translated as "The first condition of the freedom of
the press is that it is not a business activity."
It follows from this that, since the newspapers today are profit-seeking
businesses, they are not "free". Their wailing about the Leveson Report is not a
defence of freedom of the press as they claim, but a defence of the owners of
newspapers to have their papers say what they like in order to boost their
circulation and make more profits. Which is not a "freedom" socialists care
about.
It also follows that the only "free press" in
Britain are journals and magazines such as the Socialist Standard which
are published not to make a profit but solely to express an opinion. This is the
free press socialists are concerned about, value and defend.
Adam Buick
"you cannot enjoy the advantages of a free press without putting up with its inconveniences. You cannot pluck the rose without its thorns...The free press is the ubiquitous vigilant eye of a people's soul, the embodiment of a people's faith in itself, the eloquent link that connects the individual with the state and the world, the embodied culture that transforms material struggles into intellectual struggles and idealises their crude material form. It is a people's frank confession to itself, and the redeeming power of confession is well known. It is the spiritual mirror in which a people can see itself, and self-examination is the first condition of wisdom. It is the spirit of the state, which can be delivered into every cottage, cheaper than coal gas. It is all-sided, ubiquitous, omniscient. It is the ideal world which always wells up out of the real world and flows back into it with ever greater spiritual riches and renews its soul."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1842/free-press/ch05.htm