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The press is either free, or it cannot be called the press at all: Vajpayee

On 27 January 2001, PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee delivered a speech at the inauguration of the International Press Institute Congress in New Delhi, underlining the press' responsibilities while emphasising the need to keep it free.

It gives me great pleasure to be with you at this prestigious assembly of eminent journalists from around the world, under the aegis of the International Press Institute. I am especially heartened by the fact that you chose to hold your Congress at a time that coincided with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Indian Republic. I hope you enjoyed watching the Republic Day Parade yesterday.

The celebration of our Republic is also, in some ways, a celebration of our free press. India is proud to have one of the freest media in the world. The number and diversity of the media outlets in English and other languages in our country, the sheer range of views and opinions expressed in them, the large and well-protected space for dissent and criticism, and, lately, their growing technological sophistication—all these have earned for the Indian press an honoured place on the global media map.

Your choice of the timing of the IPI Congress may be a coincidence of the calendar. However, at a deeper level, there is a profound conceptual interconnection between the two events. A free and responsible press is an important pillar of the Republican architecture—as essential for a healthy democracy as the legislature or the judiciary.

I wish to lay special emphasis on the two defining qualities of the press—freedom and responsibility. The press is either free, or it cannot be called the press at all. Freedom of thought and the right to information are a fundamental human right. What turns this abstract ideal into a force of democratic empowerment is the free press.

Free flow of information and ideas, effected by newspapers, magazines and journals, radio, television, and now the Internet, pulls down the most elaborate barriers for self-protection erected by authoritarian regimes of all ideologies and labels. The triumphant march of democracy in several parts of the world in recent decades was catalysed, largely, by the media.

Thus, journalists are the torchbearers of democracy and I am honoured to add my own personal welcome to the most eminent........

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