Media Law and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Media Law and Ethics - Essay Example Newspapers are among the most affected modes of communication in modern times that have been adversely affected by the debates and the differing viewpoints taken by stakeholders in the freedom debates (Barendt, 2009). While some support an entirely free press, a cross section of society feels that such freedom should be regulated to some extent. That is, laws should be enacted to ensure that media houses, more so newspaper publishers are regulated so that they do not exceed certain limits that could endanger personal and public safety or engross on human rights and liberties. Those in support of total newspaper freedom assert that this absolute freedom must be sought through constitutional and legal protections although the norm is that there should be zero interference in the media freedom from overreaching state and regulatory agencies (Dean, 2011). However, the supporters of newspaper freedom concur with their opponents who feel that with regards to government information, certain critical information, classified as secret and sensitive due to their national interest and security roles should be protected from disclosure to the public. Newspaper publishers should therefore acknowledge that certain information must be controlled and secretly guarded for the sake of protecting the interests and safety of a state. Newspapers should be Free As a result of the sensitive and controversial nature of press/newspaper freedom, governments have established not only laws and agencies to execute certain press freedom-related tasks but also commissions of inquiry to look into specific events related to press freedom. In the UK, one such commission was the Leveson Inquiry, which Prime Minister David Cameron appointed on July 6, 2011 in accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005 to further investigate the cultural and ethical practices related to the revelations of phone hacking activities by the News International. The News International phone-hacking scandal is a controversy surrounding the defunct News of the World and other media outlets related to the subsidiary of News Corporation, News International. In this phone-hacking scandal, the employees of these related firms have been accused of engaging in police bribery, phone hacking and improper influence in executing their tasks of collecting information and creating stories. The public outcry was particularly targeted at News Corporation’s owner Rupert Murdoch whose company was accused of targeting celebrities, high-profile cases, victims, the British Royal Family and bombing victims in their phone hacking activities. Because of the resultant advertiser boycotts, the News of the World closed on 10 July after publishing for 168 years and the News Corporation cancelled its intended takeover of the British telecommunications company BSkyB (The BBC, 2011). The Lord Justice Leveson-led inquiry was thus mandated to inquire about these claims about the News of the World. Further, the Inquiry had to l ook into the initial police inquiry and the allegations that the News Corporation made illegal payments to police (Jenkins, 2012). The most important role of the Inquiry was however to review the UK media’s general culture and ethics. From this case study, it is imperative that media stakeholders recognize their role, responsibilities and influences in the society to act not only ethically but

History of Eastern Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

History of Eastern Philosophy - Essay Example They believe that religion and philosophy are mutually exclusive and drastically different (Carr, pp. 241-243). They have various arguments in this regard. First, the most important difference between these two is the fact that philosophy aims at uncovering the truth about the universe through a systematic and logical process of rational inquiry and even if any knowledge obtained from some other source or object cannot meet the rational requirements would be discarded. On the other hand, religion promotes rationality to the extent to which it does not collide or negate the existence of a supernatural force or its Holy books. Furthermore, the â€Å"knowledge† gained through the holy books or prophets, is also a consideration as the ultimate truth without testing it through any rational or logical means. Second, religion is not complete in the absence of rituals (Ram-Prasad, pp. 85-89). Every religion requires its followers to follow some practices, norms, ceremonies and others, which complete his followership. However, a philosopher can endorse philosophy without having to practice any ceremonies. Third, a closer look would reveal that philosophy is a thinking, which has a beginning but no end. Despite the fact that the whole premise has its basis on awareness the problem, that outweighs the search of a final answer (Bretzke, pp. 141-145). In fact, every answer in philosophy gives rise to new problems and questions. On the other hand, religion takes an approach, which aims at finding a specific answer that puts a full stop to all the discussion. This paper is an attempt to look at the various eastern philosophies such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. The paper will explore these religions and the link with the philosophies, which they have founded over the period. Discussion Taoism, also known as â€Å"Daoism, is an eastern religion and philosophy† (Bretzke, pp. 141-145), which is more than two millenniums old. Statistics reveal tha t there are more than 225 million followers of this religion; however, the numbers is doubtful since many of its followers accept it as a philosophy and associate himself or herself with Confucianism or Buddhism as well at the same time. The founder of this school of thought, Loa Tzu lived a few years before Confucius (Bretzke, pp. 141-145). A comparison of Confucianism and Taoism would reveal that Confucius has actually build upon many of the teachings of Lao Tzu has many of his teachings are an evolved form of Taoists ideals. Loa Tzu believed that the best way of achieving happiness is to stop complaining about the way thing are going, sit back and let nature take care of things (Bretzke, pp. 141-145). His way of doing things is not by doing anything. He believed that everything in the nature has a life and shared a force in the total universal force. Therefore, humans should align their forces and power with that of the universe to achieve satisfaction. Taoism believes that every person has a Yin (the dark side) and Yang (the light side). The best way is to keep them balanced in order to lead the best life. Furthermore, Taoism also appears to be in line with anarchism which believes that there should be no rules or regulations formed by the government. Some Taoists have gone to say that there should be no governments at all since it is against the principle of â€Å"doing by doing nothing† (Leaman, p. 74-76). People should have the right to decide everything for themselves.