Abstract
The Commission on Freedom of the Press published its report, entitled A Free and Responsible Press, in 1947.The report was highly critical of the way in which the press exercised its freedom and urged, among other things, that public rights prevail over private rights in construing freedom of the press and that government should help create a model for the private press.This report, later developed as the social responsibility theory of the press, became a staple in postwar media studies around the globe.This essay reviews its plausibility in the contemporary media environment after it surveys the analyses and critiques of the report in the past.
