In my view, however, the right to free speech is not unlimited.
NIDDERAU, GERMANY: Your editorial “Media and the ‘national interest’” of June 5 is well written. In my view, however, the right to free speech is not unlimited. In determining its limits, context matters. A well-known judge of the US Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, famously observed that a man should not be free to shout a false alarm of ‘fire!’ in a crowded theatre.
It is true that the freedom of media has brought some bad eggs who keep on exaggerating the facts and calling them breaking news, which is below normal standards of journalism. We should, however, not forget that the media tells us stories which we want to hear. Here in Germany, the most read newspaper is Bild Zeitung, which sensationalises the news. However, it is read widely because this is what ‘ordinary’ people want to seem to read.
I suppose that is the price that one has to pay for the media to be free. That said, I would still prefer this freedom compared to making a newspaper a government gazette.
Sharif Lone
Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2011.
