ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a commentary on the significance of a free media in developing and sustaining the Rule of Law. Discussions about the role of a significantly free media in maintaining the Rule of Law are frequent – and pertinent. The media remains an effective means of promoting accountability in government, and journalists play an essential role in upholding the Rule of Law. If their sources of information are not protected, and they themselves are open to legal action which prevents them from reporting in the public interest, the Rule of Law is threatened. Without far-reaching, robust funding, they will fail to deliver the Rule of Law effectively for all – for the mass of people or the “grass roots”. The Hong Kong experience shows that there are two broad areas of required funding: primary institutional funding and secondary, stability funding.
