Indian Law and Press

From the beginning, freedom of the press was sought and obtained on the ground that it was a prerequisite to democracy. Without the medium of the press, people had no means of judging the performance or credentials of aspirants to power in a democracy. Even otherwise, people depend on the press on a daily basis for a variety of needs. It goes without saying that all other freedoms become irrelevant without freedom of the press because denial of this freedom means the strangling of democracy. The press, including individual journalists and media organisations, demand freedom because of the functions they discharge for the benefit of the society. Both society and the state need information on a day to day basis. Though governments have their own machinery to gather information, they rely on the media as barometers of public opinion. The public or the citizenry depend on the media for fair and impartial information regarding the government’s activities. In today’s context, freedom of the press is only an extension of the citizen’s right to freedom of speech and expression. It is the press alone which can thwart the attempts of any government to deny this right to the citizen. Daily hundreds of decisions are taken by the government which affect the citizens directly.