Journalism, Public, Policy: An Institutional View of the Press’s Legal Discourse at the End of the 19th Century

Abstract

This study analyzes discourse about journalists’ privilege and libel law from 1894 to 1897 to explain how the press articulated the public policy rationale for legal protection at a pivotal moment in journalism history. To illuminate the relationship between emerging professional values and ideas about law, it applies the analytical lens of institutionalism. The study argues that the public policy rationale that appeared in the legal discourse surrounding these key legal issues was both a function of principled professional identity–building and a means of “institutional maintenance” intended to protect the press’s social status.

The State's Responsibility To The Journalist Profession: The Problems Of Journalist Competency Test

“…The journalist profession has implications for the right to freedom of opinion and expression as part of human rights; everyone has the meaning that the profession is an implementation of the guarantee of freedom to communicate and obtain information (Disantara, 2021). This profession provides space for every press member to obtain, search, manage, store, and publish information through various available media channel schemes Therefore, it has become an urgency when a country is obliged to have legitimacy through the products of laws and regulations regarding the protection of the press (File, 2019). Moreover, journalistic activities of journalists are closely related to social conditions and existing legal certainty,…”