A relook at press freedom

THE world commemorated World Press Freedom Day yesterday, but it would continue to do so each year with more earnest hopefulness than elated accomplishment if campaigners fail to understand the actual meaning and imperatives of press freedom. 

Activists often advocate press freedom as an end in itself, an absolute condition whose presumed universal standard is said to be evident in some countries but not (or less so) in the rest. But others counter that the concept is relative, culture-bound, politically motivated and not so much an end as a means.