Journalism and Press Freedom as Human Rights

Abstract

This paper defends journalism and press freedom as human rights, on the basis of a ‘naturalistic’ approach to such rights. Three fundamental human interests – in education about current affairs, legitimate authority, and a voice in public debate – are identified as grounds for a human right, held by each and every one of us, that journalistic communication be engaged in for our sake. The journalist’s role-based rights to communicate are argued to be themselves of high priority importance because of their tight protective relationship to these universally held human rights to education, legitimate authority and voice. Journalists’ communicative rights are therefore not simply instances of the more general right to communicate held by everyone; and the paper shows that their particular basis in education, legitimacy and voice supports special protections for journalism, and also implies limits to these protections.