There have been a lot of criticisms of the mass media in relation to their content and behavior of their reporters. Some people suggest that there should be stricter control over the media. Others think that freedom of the press is of the greatest importance to society. Write an essay arguing either for or against the proposal of imposing stricter control over the media.
The outrage caused by a local magazine, Easy Finder, of pictures showing the local singer Gillian Chung changing her clothes back stage in 2006, has once again highlighted the issue of freedom of the press in Hong Kong. Nowadays, there have been a lot of criticisms of the mass media in relation to their content and behavior of their reporters. Some people suggest that there should be stricter control over the media. However I am against the proposal of imposing tighter control over the media because I think that freedom of the press is of the greatest importance to society.
Firstly, I think that freedom of the press is important to a society. Freedom of the press is the promise by government that it will not punish journalists or other people who report the news for doing their jobs, so reporters are protected from expressing their opinions or beliefs. If the government agrees on tightening the control over the mass media, I am afraid that reporters will meet many obstacles when exposing scandals in our society. It acts like a barrier for reporters to publish the truth in the public. Also, I reckon that the citizens should have the right to know what is happening in the community. Moreover, I discover that once a piece of shocking news is published, it will increase the awareness in our society. For example, the cases of domestic violence were widely published in newspapers in the past few years. It increased the awareness about people living in the ‘city of sadness’, Tin Shui Wai. After that, many citizens urged the government to give support to these people. Nevertheless, if there is a stricter control on the content, I am worried that this kind of news which is about violence, cannot be widely reported anymore so that only few people can be aware of this underprivileged community. Therefore, I think that as long as the news is showing the real situation about our society, the reporters should have right to report it. In short, I object to the proposal of imposing stricter control over the media.
Secondly, I think the freedom of the press can improve the transparency of the government in order to motivate officials to work discreetly. As reporters have the right and freedom to report the mistakes made by the government, thus, officials will work circumspectly to prevent making errors. Then, it will benefit the whole society. In contrast with China many years ago, there was no freedom of the press so reporters were restricted to report many things about the government. As a result, corruption was common in China due to the low transparency of the government. It is important for reporters to trail the officials and keep checking the work of the government so that they can be supervised by the public. Consequently, I object the proposal of imposing stricter control over the media.
Thirdly, I think stricter control over the media will an obstacle in reporting the news about people selling fake products. As no one will admit that he is selling bogus goods, it is difficult to show evidence to the public without covert filming. Therefore, if the Hong Kong government passes laws against video voyeurism or covert filming, reporters will be going to meet many difficulties in reporting this kind of news. Thus, I oppose the proposal of imposing stricter control over the media.
On the other hand, seeing that many mass media abuse the freedom of the press to spread the idea of pornography and violence, some people are worried that the ethical standards in our society will decline. Moreover, the credibility of the mass media is facing sharp fall so that it makes many people suggest imposing stricter control over the media to supervise the bad behavior of reporters as well as the content they publish.
However, I think the current legislation is enough to restrict the behavior of reporters. It is because freedom of the press does not protect everything that a journalist writes, hence, it will not be abused. A journalist can be sued for libel, for publishing news about a person that they know is false. For example, Easy Finder was sued because of covert filming in the changing room and publishing these pictures in their magazine. In this example, we can see that even under the protection of the freedom of the press, the reporters still need to bear the legal responsibility for the misbehavior of reporting. That is the reason for me to believe that the current legislation is sufficient to restrict the behavior of the reporters, so I disagree the proposal of imposing stricter control over the media.
To conclude, the freedom of the press is important to the society so we need to protect it. In addition, the freedom of the press can help to improve the transparency of the government, as well as to report the news about tricksters selling fake products. Furthermore, I think the current legislation is sufficient to restrict the behavior of reporters, so I am against the proposal of imposing stricter control over the media.