The Press-its Functions and Responsibilities
In the present age it is the newspaper (press) that guides public opinion and it is the public option that makes or marks the position and stability of governments. The news-paper is the most popular form of reading. It is cheap and also suits the tastes of all types of people. A newspaper keeps us both entertained and instructed.
Newspapers are one of the signs of modern civilization. The more a country is educated, the more important are the functions of a newspaper, for an educated man is always eager to know what is going on in the world and he can get this only through the medium of the newspaper. Further, he cannot fail to be influenced by the editorials and articles appearing in the newspaper. Thus a newspaper has an important function in forming public opinion and a great responsibility while moulding it.
Thus the most important function of a newspaper is to educate public opinion. It gives necessary information on the important topics of the day, throws light on the current social and political problems, and informs the public about important discoveries and inventions. The average man, being far too busy in the affairs of daily life to examine minutely the problems of the day, goes to the newspapers and accepts their mature opinions and makes them his own.
The newspaper has, therefore, great educative value. Its pages record descriptions and criticisms of new literature, travel, exploration, scientific research, and ancient history, as well as accounts of current events. Thus a fairly educated man who reads his newspaper regularly is often more intelligent and better informed than a philosopher who has read all the books in the national library.
Another important function of a newspaper is to voice the opinion of the public and to speak out fearlessly against all injustice and oppression. Wherever corruption, fraud, or injustice is being practiced, sooner or later some newspaper turns the searchlight of publicity on the matter, and rouses public opinion to raise its voice against the existing evil. Again, it enables the oppressed and the down-trodden to make their voices heard and thus win the sympathy of the people. The Government would have been less responsible, the judges less honest, and the police less efficient, if there were no newspapers to criticize their conduct. So it acts as an effective check on the misuse of power.
The newspaper also qualifies a man for citizenship, or producing in his mind a due sense of his rights and duties as a citizen. It teaches him the value of the vote, tells him what taxes are justly imposed, explains to him the significance of the proceedings of the assemblies and parliament and other public bodies, helps him to develop this civic sense, and thus makes him a responsible and patriotic citizen. Another important function of a newspaper is to act as a social reformer. Terrible social abuses which are causing great harm to the country, are strongly exposed and criticized. It is due to the continued propaganda of the newspapers that untouchability, dowry system etc, are not so acute now as they used to be in the past.
At the same time newspapers have a great responsibility towards the public. It is true that sometimes newspapers are used to stir up hatred between different classes or communal feelings or creating disaffection between the people and the Government. Again indecent advertisements and stories sometimes appear in certain newspapers which tend to demoralise the people. Side by side with its beneficial activities, it may do much harm if it forgets its responsibilities. That is why Mahatma Gandhi once observed : “The News-paper Press is a great power but just as an unchecked tor-rent of water drowns the whole countryside and ruins the crops, even so an uncontrolled or prejudiced or misdirected pen serves to destroy. If the control is from without (i.e., from a foreign country) it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within.”
Still the advantages of having a strong, independent and honest press far outweighs the evils practised by certain cheap, irresponsible newspapers. The newspaper is one of the greatest boons of modern civilization and journalism and should be allowed the maximum amount of freedom possible. Newspapers, if restricted by strict laws and regulations, cannot give expression to free opinion, and without freedom of expression, the utility of the newspaper is destroyed. In the present age of growing civilization newspapers are capable of doing immense good to society, the country and the world. The freedom of the press or the Fourth Estate, as it is called, is therefore, the first condition for the freedom of the people.
