By Jessica Reed
You may remember this blog entry, in which I was saddened by the fragile current state of Liberation, the french daily newspaper founded by Jean Paul Sartre and Serge July.
This Liberation interview with Jean-Pierre Mignard (in french) offers an interesting point of view on the current state of the press, its needs and its independence issues, in which the lawyer and Sciences-Po professor presents an unusual suggestion to rescue newspapers in desperate financial need. According to him, the state would have not only the right but also the constitutional duty to help publications of national importance which are in crisis, via a council of public financing.
His argument is simple: one of the fundamental principle of democracy is freedom of speech, and the right to access information within a balanced and fair journalistic context is one of its modern illustration. In France the constitutional council also says that this very freedom is directly linked to material aid, and that the pluralism of opinions (1) should be protected since the country considers it to be a constitutional value.
Therefore the Press would have a special corporate status, and "to help it would also be helping fundamental liberties" as it feeds debates and dialogues which may help citizens to make up their mind about current issues (and eventually find its reflection in ballots comes elections time).
Of course I suppose that such a suggestion would be received differently in other countries (the United States come to mind), and that one would have to be extremely careful that the Government could not, in any way, provide help to a newspaper with an dubious or biased political agenda. After all, feeding the "fourth branch of government" theory would be a counter-productive mistake.
But if newspapers are currently losing their independence and authentic 'voice' due to both lack of fundingsand plolitically-oriented stock-holders, and if the State can garantee equal and fair funding, then why should we not save vital publications in danger of dissappearing?
(1) According to Jean-Pierre Mignard, pluralism also exists as a "quasi-constitutional value" in the European Chart of fundamental rights.
