Access to Media

This entry concerns an individual's right to speak through privately owned media and the availability to the public of diverse views. It reviews the development of the concept of “access” to media and how that concept applies to print and electronic media. The increasing opportunities for journalists and others to contribute to what some call the “marketplace of ideas” raise a host of complex legal issues as well as concerns important to democratic deliberation.

The phrases “right to know” or “right to access media” do not appear in the U.S. Constitution, but they are not empty slogans. The Supreme Court, Congress, and federal regulators have all recognized the concept of listener or viewer rights and the importance of access to diverse sources of information in the large body of court decisions regarding the First Amendment, as well as in legislation and regulation requiring speaker access to certain media. While this entry focuses on access to media in the United States, this concept is also expressed in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Whether UN declarations, U.S. free speech jurisprudence, or media policies will or should change in an era of digital communication is the subject of considerable debate. And whether access to media is even salient as Internet communication becomes more available is also the subject of considerable debate. In general, while the founders advanced the access of citizens to media by subsidizing the distribution of newspapers through the postal service, their concern was to make print publications available to the general public. Debate over the obligations of media owners to allow public access to their communications services did not begin until the federal government began to license broadcasters, and provide protections and impose limits regarding who controlled stations in a community. A very limited right of access would be applied to broadcasting and media distributing broadcast signals, such as cable and satellite. But arguments that similar access rights should be extended to print media would fail. The debate over access to media was informed by notions about “free speech” that developed in the early 1900s.