ABSTRACT
For journalists in both developing and developed countries, the stark reality is that economic demand and public policy are rarely supportive of good journalism. The irony of this, as both development theory and free expression theory recognize, is that neither markets nor governments work very well in the absence of reasonably complete, accurate and timely information. So though the “public interest” may not be susceptible to definition in economic terms, for journalists the thrust of the thing is straightforward: It is about serving the information needs of listeners and viewers so that the actions they take as citizens have real meaning. How to sustain this mission is the problem.
