Document type
ArticleVersion
Published versionPublication date
Publication license
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/217259
On citizens' right to information: Justification and analysis of the democratic right to be well informed
Journal Title
Authors
Director/Tutor
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Related resource
Abstract
One of the crucial questions that lawyers, philosophers, politicians, and journalists
struggled with during the twentieth century was how to “guarantee that informative and accurate news would flow to the public through the press.”
Traditional answers to this question assumed that the key to a well-informed citizenry lay within speech rights. The idea was that speech rights would create a rich flow of information from which diligent citizens could learn the important facts and form their own views about public issues.
However, in digital democracies, speech rights are very well entrenched, yet many
people are still largely uninformed. To be sure, ignorance is sometimes the result
of negligence, but it is undeniable that citizens are often the victims of disinformation campaigns, fake news, and personalized online propaganda. These phenomena make it difficult to understand public issues even if one is disposed to do so.
And, importantly, they seem to confirm what scholars like Lebovic himself—but
also Lippmann or Habermas—have lamented: speech rights are not enough to guarantee that the public receives an adequate supply of news. The traditional answer to Lebovic's question is, then, at least partially incorrect.
Subject
Subject (English)
Citation
Collections
Citation
MARCIEL, Rubén. On citizens' right to information: Justification and analysis of the democratic right to be well informed. Journal of Political Philosophy. 2023. Vol. 31, num. 3, pags. 358-384. ISSN 0963-8016. [consulted: 13 of August of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/217259