FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION GRUPPO: Coin Patrizio, Pasqualetto Giada, Salviato Alessio, Zabeo Ilaria, Zabotto Anna e Zilio Andrea

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION Freedom of information is a fundamental element of freedom of expression. It implies a relationship between the one who delivers the message and the one who receives it. Journalists should be free to receive information, including anonymously, from anyone. According to the ECtHR the protection of sources is one of the basic conditions for freedom of the press, and an order to a journalist to disclose a source cannot be justified unless there is an overriding requirement in the public interest. Journalitsts need to exercise professionalism in the use they make of confidential information.

THE MIDDLE AGE Medieval rights were not “human” rights because they were based on particular customs and legislation not applied to all human being. Under the reign of King John I was made an important document: the “Magna Carta” (1225).

THE PURITAN AGE In the Puritan age the King Charles I was forced by parliament to sign the “Petition of Rights” which demanded that taxes collected without Parliament’s permission and imprisonment without trial should be illegal (1628).

THE PERIOD OF THE RESTORATION

James II succeeded Charles II on the throne. At first he was supported by the Tories, until he began to place Catholics in positions of authority in the army and university. When he had remarried the Catholic Mary of Modena, he became the father of a catholic son and heir. The Whigs and even the Tories in Parliament were alarmed; another civil war could happen. On 28 January 1689 a revolution had taken place; the monarch had been chosen by Parliament, not by divine right. This revolution had been without any fighting and it was known as the “Bloodless” or “Glorious” Revolution. Parliament had William sign a contract the “Bill of Rights”. With the “Act of Settlement” of 1701, Parliament also decided on the succession if William and Mary died childless. Some censorship was withdrawn and newspapers began.

THE RISE OF HUMAN RIGHTS THINKING IMPROVED IN THE 17 th CENTURY THANKS TO IMPORTANT SCHOLARS SUCH AS JOHN LOCKE AND JOHN MILTON

JOHN LOCKE

The philosopher John Locke is regarded as the principal figure of the development of human rights thinking. He claimed that every man had a right to life, liberty and property. These ideas were based on the idea of rational, equal men and the natural rights provided by God. If a government violated these rights it became a tyranny and lost the legitimacy to rule.

JOHN MILTON

John Milton, a brilliant scholar, wrote a series of pamphlets, some of them dedicated to the freedom of press and he also wrote an important book in which he argued against the censorship of printing: the “Aeropagitica”. But his plea ( APPELLO ) fell on deaf ears and it was not until 1694 that the principle that books should be published without government’s control received legal sanction.

FROM AEROPAGITICA (1644): [...] And yet, on the other hand, unless wariness ( CAUTELA ) be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kill’s the image of God, as it were in the eye.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY

Today the monarchy in Britain is politically neutral and by convention the role is largely ceremonial. No person may accept significant public office without swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen. In present terms, the difference between a parliamentary democracy that is a constitutional monarchy and one that is a republic is considered more one of detail than of substance. In both cases, the titular head of state - monarch or president - serves the traditional role of representing the nation, while the actual governing is carried out by a cabinet composed of elected Members of Parliament.

The King or the Queen and his/her Governors-General in the Commonwealth realms hold significant "prerogative" powers, to be wielded in times of extreme emergency or constitutional crises usually to uphold parliamentary government.