Abstract
Freedom of speech or of the press is both ideally and historically conceived. In the course of its development, this freedom has been used as an ideal and in its formality for the purpose of protecting its value securely. This attitude was decisively important amidst the fierce battle against the oppressive government. However, in a stable democratic society, some reasonable coordinations between this freedom and other individual rights or social interests are often required. For this purpose, it is a task of today to get at the root of the guarantee of this freedom and also to discuss the reason why we protect free press. This study will contribute to reconsidering the values and limitations of this freedom under the development of new media technologies including Internet, which are considered to be beyond our traditional understanding of the freedom of speech.
