Every other Tuesday, the team behind Civics 101 joins NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.
Civics 101 host Hannah McCarthy joins Julia to talk about freedom of the press, its responsibilities to the public and if the press is still as free as the constitution intended it to be.
Transcript
Alright Hannah, when we talk about freedom of the press, what does ‘the press’ mean? Can you define it for us?
This is an interesting question because, certainly, while there are some states who have defined [the press] in their courts, and while the Department of Justice actually has a designation as to what makes the press ‘the press,’ this is something that is still debated. It's not as though the Constitution tells us exactly what it is.
And this is in part today, because anybody can publish their observations, their news gathering [and] their ideas online. But I will tell you, ideally, the press or the media comprises people who seek out, verify and disseminate the truth. Then, when it comes to legal questions as to who the press is, that usually means any entity that is in the regular business of gathering news and giving it to the public. That can be newspapers, radio, television, [or] via photos or the internet. In certain states, at least, it might be on the state legislature to decide what exactly the press is and whether that means that they can access and spread certain information. It's important to note that verification of the news is not necessarily a qualifier for being a member of the press.
Why was freedom of the press created in the first place?
The press is often called the ‘Fourth Estate.’ And what the Fourth Estate really means is that it is almost—emphasis on almost—another branch of the government, insofar as it issues checks on the other branches. It is a check from the outside. The press are the ones who watch and make note of and let the public know what is going on. Because frankly, there is plenty that the government would prefer to do in the shadows. Even when the framers were drafting the Constitution, they understood that you needed an additional something that was going to watch what was going on within those three branches.
Looking back at freedom of the press throughout U.S. history, how are we doing now? Is freedom of the press safe here in the U.S. today?
I find that people are often surprised to hear that in the U.S., which is this nation with a revered document that enshrines press freedom as a right, we do not rank particularly well in global assessments of press freedoms. So what I always check is the Reporters Without Borders analysis. They look at 180 countries, they look at their constitutions [and] they look at how they treat their members of the press. The U.S. has turned up in the mid 40s of that list for a while now. There was a precipitous decline in press freedom starting in 2016 through 2020. Only in the past few years have instances of press demonization and violence against members of the press started to decline.
It's really important to think about the fact that one of the chief markers of the decline of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism is often the erosion of press freedoms. It is both an indicator of and contributor to anti-democratic styles of government.
