Why is freedom of press important in democracy?

Answer 1

So that a free and informed voting public can hear and critically assess competing ideas. Unfortunately the "free" press has a long history of bias and a lack of objectivity. And the government has a long history of suppressing free speech and the press. John Adams, Lincoln, Wilson and FDR most famously promoted and enforced laws prohibiting "anti-government" speech or print.

Adams signed alien and sedition acts in 1798, making it a crime to criticize him. Lincoln imprisoned anti-war editors of northern papers, Wilson passed the sedition acts of 1918 (It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces).

FDR forcibly shut down non union print shops and magazines critical of his administration and even went as far as pulling newsboys off the street for selling print from anti-war papers and magazines.

Answer 2

The freedom of the press allows parties who are not currently in power and whose views oppose those of the current in-power party the ability to freely express their view and solicit votes in upcoming elections. Without the freedom of the press, the ability to disseminate information would be at the will of whoever was in power by accident of history.

In a broader sense, freedom of the press has been shown to be highly correlated with high literacy, especially high political literacy. When people read more and understand their political situation better, they can better orient their opinions and evaluated whether or not their particular politicians are supporting their beliefs.

Answer 3

the freedom of the press is valued in america, because if we didn't have it, all the newspapers and other stuff would just be a bunch of bogus junk that people made instead of what they thought was real

Answer 4

Freedom of the press is important for many different reasons. The most important of these is this the freedom that allows the media to bring the news to the general public.