Regulation of Free Expression Manifest, Yoko Taguchi
For long time, people have been held suspicion of information of Television, Newspapers, and SNS run by government, corporations, and individuals. Where does the suspicion come from? It deprives from media’s wrong and manipulative broadcasts without social responsibility. Here, social responsibility denotes the responsibility of broadcasting accurate and fair information. The media do not explicitly violate this responsibility. What hinders their obligation of social responsibility? It is the rights of free expression.
Because of the unregulated rights of free expression, individuals, corporations, and even government announce silly lies, alluring advertisement, and manipulative declaration. That’s the reason why Venezuelan people faced the crisis of dictatorship from anti-Chavez party in 2002. That’s the reason why the curse of annihilation by nuclear contamination frightened people in Japan and all over the world in 2011.
Of course, there is no doubt that nothing can restrict anyone’s freedom of expression.
However, having the rights of free expression does not mean that people are welcomed to voice irrational information. Professor Mark Dinneen alerts that, “all [media] must assume responsibility for what they express, and cannot hide behind anonymity or convey messages that promote war, discrimination or religious intolerance” (38). Then, he continues that, “past experience highlights the need to regulate the conduct of the media more effectively, to improve the quality and accuracy of the information it disseminates, extend public access to and participation in the media and to encourage social responsibility on the part of its owners and employees” (38-39). As Dinneen declares, the right of free expression in media is only guaranteed when they conduct their own social responsibility.
In order to solve this mischief of the rights of free expression, any third party must establish an inspective organization and deploy the inspectors to all media groups. As people who desire getting rid of media suspicion, we need to move the society and to develop the trusting media.
Yoko Taguchi
January 2015, California, U.S.
