The freedom of the press is by no means a matter of course. Our past has been dominated by forms of restrictions, such as the system of censorship in Ancient Greece described by Plato in the Republic . And it was not until the beginning of the 18th century that a decline of censorship in western countries could finally be felt. Restrictions of the press were now considered a relic of an unenlightened and repressive age.

A major step in the response to censorship problems can be seen in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, that provides:

“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press …”

So is there any need at all, for restricting the freedom of the press in a modern and civilised society?

After Fox’s Libel Act in 1792, all efforts to restrain the freedom of the press in Britain have centred on questions of libel, obscenity, or national security. But can restrictions of that freedom in the British society or any other modern and civilised society, still be founded on such arguments?

Concerning the idea of obscenity our attitude has changed througho

In the years before and during World War II in countries such as Germany or Italy the press was subject to the rigid censorship associated with Fascism. It was in the sake of national security that the German department of propaganda issued false information about the near “Endsieg” , that accurate, not even to think of critical coverage of the news, was no longer available for millions of people.

But even in modern and civilised societies the freedom of the press is by no means universal. Some say that Western press freedom is illusive, because a wealthy minority controls what is to be printed and it is evident that there are strong influences on the press, wherever newspaper ownership approaches monopoly or the press is controlled by a small number of organizations or individuals (e.g. Murdoch ; Berlusconi ).

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