The role of journalism in society
Journalism plays a very important role in democratic societies.
One of its main purposes is to supply voters with the information they need to make informed choices, for example, about how they are going to vote in an election.
The democratic principle of 鈥榝reedom of speech鈥 - meaning that people have the right to freely express their views and opinions, and to question or criticise the government - is enabled by a free, independent media.
The media serves an important role in providing investigative reports, debate, discussion, background and analysis, as well as news stories.
Programmes like Question Time serve an important role in questioning the government, politicians and other public officials
Journalism serves as a public 鈥榳atchdog鈥 by monitoring the political process in order to ensure that politicians carry out voters鈥 wishes, and that they don鈥檛 abuse their positions.
A free press is important because if the media was not able to report truthfully on events, important information might be hidden and voters would remain in the dark. Equally, if the media was not allowed to facilitate open and free discussion, the views and concerns of ordinary people might not be heard.