Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, press freedom: a trinomial for debate

Abstract

Western countries are indebted to the political and economic freedoms put in place in the eighteenth century by France, the United States and Britain, among which are freedom of thought, speech and press. In this paper a brief review of the origins and evolution of these concepts is presented, and then focuses on the elements of the current environment that are affecting their interpretation and enforcement. The development of digital technology, the socalled globalization and the economic crisis in developed countries pose new limits to these freedoms, compromising the role of the media and journalism in the social construction of reality. The analysis considers freedom of thought as a prerequisite for the existence of freedom of speech, with press freedom being a collective right corollary of the previous two.