Even in captivity, a person can accept or resist, hope or despair. And it is this very choice that defines humanity.
So, what about freedom of speech?
Freedom of speech is not the highest freedom, but it is one of the most important conditions for protecting the freedom of choice and self-direction in one's life.
Because people can only make choices when they have access to information. No one can make the right decisions if what they know about the world is distorted, concealed, or biased. When the right to speak, to hear, and to debate is restricted, the ability to think for oneself is also diminished.
However, freedom of speech is not just the right to express oneself. It is also the right to access diverse perspectives, thereby forming independent perceptions. A society where everyone is allowed to speak, but only hears one voice, is not necessarily a truly free society. This is where the press plays a crucial role.
At its highest level, journalism is not merely a news delivery system. It is a social institution that expands human freedom by providing truth, challenging authority, uncovering problems, and creating a forum for dialogue between different viewpoints.
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Comrade Trinh Van Quyet, Member of the Political Bureau, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party, Head of the Central Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Department, and delegates visit the exhibition booth of the Military Press Bloc at the 2026 National Press Conference. Photo: VIET TRUNG |
A healthy press doesn't think for the public, but rather provides the public with enough information to think for themselves. It doesn't impose conclusions, but provides facts so that each person can draw their own conclusions. It doesn't create submissive individuals, but contributes to the formation of citizens capable of independent thinking.
Conversely, when the press merely repeats pre-existing patterns, avoids the truth, or chases after emotions, sensationalism, and prejudice, it ceases to expand freedom and begins to narrow it. In such cases, people believe they are making choices, but in reality, they are only choosing within a pre-determined cognitive space.
Therefore, the greatest value of journalism does not lie in the number of articles published each day. The greatest value of journalism is its contribution to protecting people's right to know, their right to think, and ultimately, their right to choose. In other words, if freedom of choice is the core of humanity, then genuine journalism is one of the forces protecting that core. Not by choosing on behalf of people, but by enabling them to have the means to choose for themselves.
To say that the press does not grant freedom to the public, but only creates the conditions for the public to exercise their freedom, is because freedom is not a gift that anyone can bestow. True freedom stems from each individual's capacity for self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-choice. No state, organization, or media outlet can "grant" that capacity to a person. Nor can anyone think for another person.
But human beings live and make choices within a specific social environment. The quality of those choices depends greatly on the quality of information they access. A person standing at a crossroads, not knowing which path leads where, cannot be considered to be making a free choice. They can still choose, but it's a choice within only three possibilities; there could be other forks in the road, other paths, couldn't there?
Therefore, the right to know is a condition of freedom. The more clearly people understand reality, the more capable they are of controlling their own decisions. The more information is withheld or misinformation is disseminated, the more vulnerable people become to manipulation. This is where the noblest role of journalism lies.
An investigative report on corruption doesn't directly make people freer. But it helps people better understand the social realities they live in. A scientific paper doesn't directly make readers smarter, but it provides knowledge to help them make better choices in their lives. A policy critique doesn't make decisions for the public, but it opens up perspectives that the public may not have seen before.
In that sense, journalism is not about guiding public thought to a predetermined conclusion. Instead, it broadens the horizons of understanding, allowing the public to arrive at their own conclusions. The more diverse, truthful, and respectful of truth a press is, the more open the space for social freedom becomes. Conversely, when journalism offers only a single perspective on the world, people's choices are correspondingly narrowed. This is because people can only choose from the possibilities they are aware of.
Therefore, the greatest contribution of the press to freedom is not speaking on behalf of the people, but helping them to have enough information to speak for themselves; not thinking on behalf of the people, but helping them to have the conditions to think for themselves; not choosing on behalf of the people, but helping them to have enough understanding to make their own choices.
And at this point, journalism meets philosophy. If philosophy asks the question: "What is a human being?", then journalism, in its best sense, contributes to protecting one of the qualities that make us human: the capacity for freedom of perception and freedom of choice.
Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/van-hoa/doi-song/bao-chi-giup-tu-do-lua-chon-va-dinh-huong-doi-minh-1045342
