A Crucial Discussion for Democracy

Abstract

from the need to overcome the limitations of the censorship imposed by the Absolutist State. The right to freedom of expression, defended in manifestoes such as Areopagite by John Milton in the XVII century, who was protesting the monopoly of censorship created by the English government, took on new importance with the proclamation of the Constitution of the United States, in the XVIII century, which established it as an unalienable right, and acquired legitimacy as a doctrine with the Essay on Liberty by Stuart Mill in XIX century England, during the bourgeoisie’s rise to power in the State. One hundred years later, in the XX century, the action of the press in the two World Wars revealed that it was time for a discussion with regard to limits on the practice of journalism. Transformed into one of the most profi table areas of capitalism, the press was far from merely supporting the public interest; instead, it frequently acted in its own interest or in defense of inadmissible interests. The creation of Special Committees for studying the possibilities of regulating the activity of the press in the United States and in England in the post-war period is only one of the indications of the uneasiness caused by mass journalism since the last century. Starting in the middle of the XX century, a group of initiatives has been identifi ed whose purpose has been to regulate the practice of journalism and which range from individual actions such as the hiring of A CRUCIAL DISCUSSION FOR DEMOCRACY