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Freedom of opinion and expression: Article 19 and the press
Freedom of expression is often described as the cornerstone for all rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. ... This paper will deal only with freedom of expression as it relates to the press in the provisions in international treaties.
It will look at the drafting of the right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It will compare treatments of the right between the aforementioned and other international human rights treaties, namely the European Convention on Human Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Finally, it will look at the approach taken to the right to freedom of expression in the international courts, tribunals and monitoring bodies. ...
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Article 19
1. ...
The court said:
Freedom of the press affords the public one of the best means of discovering and forming an opinion of the ideas and attitudes of political leaders. More generally, freedom of political debate is at the very core of the concept of a democratic society. ...
However, the scope for acceptable criticism was further refined in the Barford v Denmark case in which the Court ruled that judicial officers were not subject to the same levels of criticism as political figues, and the levels of acceptable criticism were narrower when dealing with named individuals rather than an institution. ... Were it otherwise, the press would be unable to play its vital role of ‘public watchdog”
It has ruled that discussion about matters of legitimate public concern is entitled to the full protection of article 10, and that in particular, for the purposes of protection, “there is no warrant for distinguishing between political discussion and discussion of other matters of public concern. ... (page 13 of 38)
Freedom of accessto information (see 34/35 of 54)
right to determine format of presentation (see pages 17 & 18 of 54)
broadcasting freedom (see page 19 of 54)
Media pluralism
Article 19 of the International Covenant, Art 13 (3) of the American convention and article 10 of the European Convention arguably give rise to a right of the public to get information from a variety of sources, and correspondingly impose a duty on governments to ensure media pluralism.
Approximate Word count = 4830
Approximate Pages = 19.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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