Freedom of the press allows for social stability by providing the truth of what occurs in society. If a nation was fed with untruths and half-truths and was not given the freedom of express the truth as it occurs, then the society would have a weak foundation and it will be unstable in the future time to come. It is therefore necessary for the newspaper to practice the presentation of accurate and truthful information to the general public. Each person or family is the single basic unit of the society. By presenting accurate and truthful information, each person reading the newspaper can get the proper insight of the occurrences in their society to their benefit and relay the information to their families. Since each person contributes to the society, each person reading the newspaper with accurate info is able to contribute to the society in a positive way and to the best of their ability since they know exactly what’s happening. While it may be true that without censorship, negative occurrences may upset the positive mindset of the nation and thus decrease the contribution to one’s society, people can learn from these occurrences and prevent them from occurring in the future, thus giving way to the enhancement of social stability on the whole. Freedom of the press is more beneficial in such a situation and thus, censorship fails pragmatically.
Similarly, freedom of the press caters for the holistic caliber of man. Freedom of the press incorporates the freedom to express and voice opinions and artistic creations, together with the right to seek, receive and input information and ideas, regardless of any frontiers. The newspaper caters for all these factors by providing advice columns, motivational and inspirational speeches as well as other useful information. Man is a holistic being, whose aim is to be a successful, functional member of society. The newspaper provides holistic development by providing information that can enhance the social, educational, spiritual, physical, economical, linguistic psychological, intellectual and social aspects of man. While it can be argued that the newspaper transcends the boundaries the freedom of expression by publishing false material to attract readers, this feature of freedom of the press stimulates the intellectual capacity of the reader by promoting choice, thus contributing to the holistic development of man, and hence provides a greater number of contributing members to society. This benefits the society tremendously, and thus, the application of freedom of the press is ideal, rather than censorship, which does nothing for the holistic development of man and thus, the society.
Alternately, press freedom stimulates the economic growth of a nation through the right to express ideas and innovations via advertising. Advertising is the act of promoting a product by informing the public of the products worth. It plays an enormous part in the world of the media. It is frighteningly manipulative and persuasive and plays on the needs and desires of man, which are frequently exploited. While some think that advertising of negative products should be censored, it allows competition, which contributes significantly to the economic prices and quality of products. It also generates employment, which is heavily beneficial to society by promoting economic growth within it. Application of the freedom of the press in this case does the greater good to society.
Press freedom and censorship will forever be an issue, which involves great controversy, mainly because views are divided amongst the vast global population. Weather or not press freedom or censorship is applied; the newspaper shall always play an integral part in society.
