Essay on “Freedom of the Press in India” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Freedom of the Press in India

Essay No. 01

In modern times the press is called upon to perform a variety of functions. Its main function is to serve news of all descriptions with a view to making us familiar with what is happening in the world. Besides that, it expresses views on various matters-political, social, economic, educational and even religious. It thus creates guides and gives shape to public opinion. By raising its powerful voice against any attempted invasion of people’s rights and liberties, it serves as the even powerful guardian of the people. It voices public demands. It ventilates public grievances. It is the champion of all good and noble causes. It exposes the social evils and suggests remedies. It plays also the role of an educator by bringing various branches of knowledge within the reach of its readers and making them conversant with the thought-currents of the world.

Such being the function of the press, it is obvious that it should be allowed a large measure of freedom. But this fundamental right has often been denied to the press. Usually restrictions are imposed on the press by governments.

Even the elected representatives of the people prefer curbing the freedom of press to have a free play in certain matters. Indian constitution guarantees a full freedom of press and Indian papers have been enjoying freedom since independence. The first Indian news-paper, Hickey’s Bengal Gazette of 17l81 was banned by Warren Hastings, and government censorships of Indian papers continued to be quite strict till 1835 when Lord Metcalfe liberated the Indian Press. State interference with the press did not disappear, however, altogether. During the days of Bengal partition and national movements, the British imposed severe restrictions were imposed by the Government during emergency days of 1975. Press is not completely free in other countries also. The Russian paper”Pravda “which is said to be having the largest circulation the world does not enjoy full freedom. In dictatorship, the press is slave to the Government, Journalists and editors write only to order. As  such press cannot discharge its primary function, viz., mirroring public opinion.

The Press enjoys freedom in a democracy. In England, Press is enjoying a large measure of freedom so the Britishers have attained a high level of journals. The U.S.A. extends the greatest freedom, to the press. “Freedom of speech and expression” is granted to every citizen by the constitution.

Now the question is, “Can the Press be completely free?” The answer cannot be completely, yes. There will obviously be chaos in the world if everybody were allowed to say or publish whatever he thought or felt. Freedom of discussion cannot be allowed to degenerate into freedom of abuse.

Essay No. 02

Power of the Press

or

Freedom of the Press

or

The Newspapers

or

The Fourth Estate

If one thing of which even the crookedest politicians and bureaucrats may be afraid is the press. It is rightly called the fourth estate. In any government, especially that having a democrative set-up, the three important organs are the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. The press may be regarded as the fourth organ.

The press brings to surface all the machinations of the clever politicians through simple informative statements and comments. The word Newspapers is almost synonymous with the word press. These newspapers are widely read even by the commonest people. Thus, if a politican falls in the eyes of the newspapers, he also loses favour with the common people whom he has to go for votes sooner or later.

The newspapers carry news, advertisements, readers’ views, editorials, book reviews, cartoons, pictures, quizzes, etc. The word news is sometimes written in capital letters NEWS to convey the sense of North, East, West and South respectively which implies that they bring news from all directions or from all over the world. But we know that the newspapers carry information even from the skies. For instance, they tell us when an eclipse is to take place, when a storm is likely to approach a particular sea-coast, when the sun is going to flare up, when a comet will touch the atmosphere of the earth, etc. They also tell us about the weather.

In the newspapers we read editorials which carry comments on different policies of the government and other matters. Sometimes, these editorials are biased in favour of or against a particular political party or other organisation. So, we must read them most objectively. If we want to express our views, we can write a simple letter to the editor. Thus, newspapers are something useful, unavoidable and even indispensable in the modern age.