One of the most important things in a democracy is a free press. It's importance to equal to that of free and fair elections (since an electorate cannot make informed and reasonable choices without a free press reporting the truth -- real verifiable facts). A press that is not free, one controlled by those in power, is next to worthless -- and to try to get news from a controlled press is just an exercise in futility.I believe that, and that is why I was interested in a recent Gallup Poll. Gallup questioned at least 1000 adults in each of 133 countries about their views on the press in their country with the operative question being whether they thought the press in their country was free. The margin of error varied between countries from 2.1 points to 5.6 points. All of the surveys were done in 2012.
The median response worldwide was that 67% of the world's people believe they live in a country with a free press, while 24% do not believe that. The countries where the most people thought their press was free and those countries where the most people thought their press was not free are listed in the charts above. Finland (97%), Sweden (95%), Denmark (95%), and Norway (95%) got the highest marks from their citizens. Citizens giving their country the lowest marks were from Belarus (26%), Gabon (32%), Chad (32%), and Zimbabwe (32%).
Note that the mainstream media of the United States is not included on either the most free or the least free lists. About 87% of the public in the United States said this country has a free press. That's a fairly high number, and it is probably deserved if we are talking about freedom from government control or interference (which is generally what this poll was asking about). I don't believe the government has much influence over the major media outlets in this country (although they do try).
But that does not mean the United States really has a free press. The problem in the United States is not government control/censorship, but control and censorship by corporations. Almost all of the major media outlets in the United States are owned by five or six giant corporations. It can be argued about whether these corporations micro-manage the newscasts on media they own or not (I believe some of that does happen), but there is no doubt that these corporations control the type of news programming, the people allowed to report the news, the point of view of each media outlet, and the type and amount of news that can be reported.
We get the corporate idea of what is news in our mainstream media, and anything that opposes that view is either not reported or given only a passing mention. For example, on the economic front we are inundated with news about the stock market, corporate profits, and how government actions affect those two entities -- but we hear very little about the economic realities on Main Street and almost nothing about the poor and disadvantaged. It seems to be assumed by those running the mainstream media that what is good for Wall Street and corporate America is good for all Americans -- but nothing could be farther from the truth.
Do we have a free media in the United States? If you're talking about the mainstream major media outlets, the short answer is NO. Far too often they report only what their corporate masters want them to report. The saving grace in the United States is that more people get their news from the internet, and the percentage that do so grows each day. With a minimum of effort, a person can get all sides of any story (although care needs to be taken, because some sources don't care a lot about facts).
How long will the internet survive as a free and open source for news and opinion? I hope for a long, long time -- but if that is to happen we must remain vigilant. The corporations are already trying to control what can and cannot be seen on the internet -- and they have their friends in Congress that are willing to give them the control they desire. We must not let that happen.
