We cannot save journalism if we fail to save journalists

Quality journalism is tied to the well-being of journalists

The ideas of accountability and public good in journalism are more than two centuries old. The institutional frameworks have been evolving over the last century — technological disruption has brought in a new set of challenges. However, the core concerns remain the same. For instance, the 1947 Hutchins Commission report about the media, “A Free and Responsible Press”, concluded that the freedom of the press was in danger. Robert M. Hutchins, who served as the president of the University of Chicago, concluded in his report that the freedom of the press was in danger for three reasons: “First, the importance of the press to the people has greatly increased with the development of the press as an instrument of mass communication. At the same time, the development of the press as an instrument of mass communication has greatly decreased the proportion of the people who can express their opinions and ideas through the press. Second, the few who are able to use the machinery of the press as an instrument of mass communication have not provided a service adequate to the needs of society. Third, those who direct the machinery of the press have engaged from time to time in practices which the society condemns and which, if continued, it will inevitably undertake to regulate or control.”