ABSTRACT
We have already touched on the problem of censorship. The moral justification for journalism, its professional mandate, is to provide information for the benefit of persons who, practically speaking, cannot gather the news for themselves. A free press is a necessity for a free society and vice versa. A society cannot function freely unless it has free access to information, because self-government presupposes an informed citizenry acting on the basis of the facts. Freedom of the press in turn exists interdependently in a larger framework of civil liberties that serve to protect the free exchange of information, thereby helping to preserve other freedoms. The only meaningful way to promote the values of a free society is through relevant truth telling. All matters of vital public concern require a free flow of information that is only made possible by the agency of a free press. For a press to be free among other things means most importantly being free from undue censorship.
