Journalism Worthy Of The Name ― Freedom Within The Press And The Affirmative Side Of Article 10 Of The European Convention On Human Rights

Freedom of the press is relatively well established in the advanced democracies, however Thorgeirdóttir (law, Bifrost School of Business, Iceland) argues that a positive understanding of press freedom is needed to ensure fulfillment of its role in democracy--in the era of concentrated media ownership and the phenomena of market regulation and self regulation. Through a rereading of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and relevant case law, he finds substantive guarantees of the right to receive for the public discourse and the democratic process, freedom of opinion with regard to the forming of public opinion and the individual development in society, and the right to impart with regard to journalists. The evolving standards of these paradigms, he contends, demand effective protection, yet he demonstrates that market regulation and self-regulation fail to offer such protection.. He concludes with a framework of affirmative action that can be used to address these problems on the basis of Article 10. Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Herdis Thorgeirsdottir is Professor at the Faculty of Law at the Bifrost School of Business in Iceland.