Freedom of the Press - A Component of Freedom of Expression

• Author: Daniela Valeria Iancu
• Position: PhD in progress. Caras-Severin Court
• Pages: 57-67

Page 57

The freedom of expression or freedom of speech is considered to be the most powerful weapon for the defense of the persons' rights and liberties against the antidemocratic manifestations (I.R.D.O., 1994, p. 37).

As shown in the doctrine (Bârsan, 2001, p. 10), "one cannot conceive progress in the scientific, cultural or artistic domains without the existence of freedom of expression beyond any state frontier..."

Freedom of expression is settled both in the reference international legal documents in the matter of human rights, and in the Constitutions of the individual states. From the regulations comprised in the international legal instruments in the matter of human rights, and from the dispositions contained in the constitutions of certain countries, one remarks that freedom of expression is designated by means of different denominations.

In article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights and art.11 of the European Union's Chart of Fundamental Rights they are entitled "freedom of expression", and the same denomination is used in the Constitutions of Romania (art. 30), Germany (art. 5), Japan (art. 21) or Denmark (art. 77). We must point outPage 58that, although art. 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights and art. 11 of the European Union's Chart of Fundamental Rights use the name of freedom of expression, in the content of the regulation expressed by these articles one speaks about the "right to the freedom of expression / speech". The same term is used in the content of the regulations contained in: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 19), the International Pact regarding the Civil and Political Rights (art. 19), the American Convention of Human Rights of San Jose (art. 13), the Islamic Universal Declaration of Human Rights (chapter XII, letter a).

Other instruments refer neither to the freedom of expression nor the right to the freedom of expression, but define this right through its components, i.e. freedom of speech and freedom of the press (The Constitution of the USA - The First Amendment, the Bill of Rights - document with constitutional value of Great Britain).

From the content of the international and constitutional regulations it results thus that freedom of expression is consecrated either under this name, or under the name of right to freedom of expression, or under the names of some of its aspects: freedom of speech and freedom of the press. One uses both notions, the notion of right, as well as the notion of freedom, freedom of expression being a right and a liberty at the same time, as long as the majority opinion in the legal literature is in the sense of the equivalence of the two notions. As regards the content of freedom of expression comprised in the international and constitutional settlements, we remark that this is different too.

Consequently, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Pact regarding Civil and Political Rights, in art. 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, art. 11 in the European Union's Chart of Fundamental Rights, the American Convention of Human Rights of San Jose, the Declaration of Fundamental Duties of Asian Peoples and States, the Islamic Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedom of expression expressly contains the freedom of opinion and the freedom of information. The same content of freedom of speech is found also in the regulation given to this right in the Constitution of Switzerland, for instance.

Certain regulations (the Bill of Rights expressly includes in the content of freedom of expression only freedom of speech or freedom of opinion, the freedom of information being settled as separate right, as well as the freedom of the press (Constitution of Romania). Other regulations expressly include in the content of freedom of expression, beside the freedom of opinion and information or thePage 59freedom of speech, the freedom of the press (Constitution of the USA - The First Amendment, Constitution of Germany, of Japan, of Russia).

Part of the aforementioned international and constitutional legal documents, although they do not expressly stipulate in the content of their regulations the freedom of the press as component of freedom of expression, still refer to it. For instance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Pact regarding Civil and Political Rights refer, in the content of the regulation regarding the freedom of expression, to the dissemination of information in printed form, whereas the European Unions' Chart of Fundamental Rights speak about the freedom and pluralism of the mass media information, and the situation is the same in the case of certain constitutional dispositions (for example: the Constitution of France, the Constitution of Romania).

From the regulations analyzed above we may draw the conclusion that freedom of expression is a right with a complex content. In our opinion, the freedom of expression comprises within its content three other freedoms: freedom of opinion, freedom of information and freedom of the press, these three liberties being interdependent and unable to manifest one in the absence of the other.

As we have already pointed out, we consider the freedom of the press is a component of freedom of expression, with the mention that, when we refer to the press, we refer to the media in general, i.e. both the written press and the spoken one.

The analysis of freedom of the press as component of freedom of expression, in our opinion., should be considered in relation with matters connected to the journalists' freedom of expression, to the liberty to create publications, to the broadcast liberties and the liberty to broadcast radio and TV shows, in the context in which this freedom is not clearly defined in the content of the international regulations in the matter of freedom of expression.

Nevertheless, from the international regulations in the matter and from certain constitutional dispositions, as well as from the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights we may deduce that the freedom of the press, as component of the freedom of expression, refers to the above-listed aspects.

The press has a special role in the present-day societies characterized, in the words of the constitutionalist Louis Favoreau, by "the convergence of political liberalism, of democracy and of the lawful state" (Favoreau, 2000, p. 91). The position of thePage 60press in a society is determined by the very fact that, naturally, at its foundation, it aims at promoting the general interests of the civil society. From this perspective the press has, first of all, a central political role (Dănior, 1997, p. 101).

Beyond the political part it plays, the press occupies a central place in the functioning of...