Dieser Artikel geht aus einer ordonomischen Perspektive vier Fragen nach. Sie lauten: 1. Was genau ist unter öffentlichem Vernunftgebrauch zu verstehen? 2. Warum sollte der öffentliche Vernunftgebrauch möglichst uneingeschränkt sein? 3. Gibt es für Intellektuelle neben Rechten vielleicht...

This paper presents a simple formal theoretical model to explain why citizens in authoritarian regimes trust the illiberal official media more than the commercial media. Media trust is defined as changes in the citizen's belief based on good or bad news from the media. Using this definition, the...

We consider a Bayesian persuasion problem where a sender's utility depends only on the expected state. We show that upper censorship that pools the states above a cutoff and reveals the states below the cutoff is optimal for all prior distributions of the state if and only if the sender's...

We study the interaction between an agent of uncertain type, whose project gives rise to both good news and bad news, and an evaluator who must decide if and when to fire the agent. The agent can hide bad news from the evaluator at some cost, and will do so if this secures her a significant...

The American press is beleaguered and distracted by the economic crisis it faces. This is understandable. The threat is existential. Platforms are squeezing the press of profits, hedge funds are siphoning off what’s left, and news deserts are expanding. But, in fact, there is another crisis...

The use of internet and digital platforms in Indonesia has been growing massively, where information exchange between users is continuous and fast-paced, especially on user-generated content (UGC) platforms such as social media, digital marketplaces, knowledge sharing, and entertainment. This...

This article focuses on mashup music, a form of sampling expression combining samples from two or more recognisable and popular music recordings into a new whole. It explains how platforms often regulate, displace and silence mashup producers, through a combination of content identification and...

We examine the patterns of media ownership in 97 countries around the world. We find that almost universally the largest media firms are owned by the government or by private families. Government ownership is more pervasive in broadcasting than in the printed media. Government ownership of the...

A free and informative press is widely agreed to be crucial to the democratic process today. But throughout much of the nineteenth century U.S. newspapers were often public relations tools funded by politicians, and newspaper independence was a rarity. The newspaper industry underwent...

This paper empirically analyzes the joint impact of democracy and press freedom on corruption. Based in the theoretical literature, we argue that both institutional features are complements rather than substitutes in controlling corruption. Our regressions are based on a cross section of 170...

The author paints with a deliberately broad brush, beginning with a rapid traverse of changing attitudes within the Commonwealth to methods of rights protection. The article then asks why there have been such changes, and discusses, with some reference to the freedom of expression, how those...

The majority of theoretical and empirical studies on the relationship between decentralization and corruption argues that the devolution of power might be a feasible instrument to keep corruption at bay. We argue that this result crucially depends on the effectiveness of monitoring...

The Korean government’s non-pharmaceutical interventions to the COVID-19 epidemic have successfully lowered the number of infected patients and the overall mortality rate. Nonetheless, the public health authority’s various mitigation strategies and vaccination efforts have faced several...

Regulating speech online has become a key concern for lawmakers in several countries. But national and supranational regulatory efforts are being met with significant criticism, particularly in transatlantic perspective. Critiques, however, should not fall into the trap of merely relitigating...

In this paper I emphasize that a critical and honest discussion of the sources and harmful consequences of online racism is needed sooner, rather than later. While appropriate responses may involve court-enforced remedies or legislative reform, complex problems call for comprehensive solutions,...

The aim of the article is to reflect on Google’s social responsibility by analyzing a milestone court decision, Vivi Down Association v. Google, that took place in Italy, involving the posting of an offensive video clip on Google Video. It was a landmark decision because it refuted the...

This paper investigates the effects of state censorship of opposition media using evidence from the closing of RCTV, a popular opposition television channel in Venezuela. The government did not renew RCTV's license, and the channel was replaced overnight, during May 2007, by a pro-government...

I study how a firm manages its reputation by investing in the quality of its product and censoring bad news. Without censorship, the threat of bad news provides strong incentives for investment. I highlight two discontinuities in the firm's maximum equilibrium payoff the introduction of...

This paper investigates the effects of state censorship of opposition media using evidence from the closing of RCTV, a popular opposition television channel in Venezuela. The government did not renew RCTV's license, and the channel was replaced overnight, during May 2007, by a pro-government...

It is often assumed that there is a trade-off between civil rights and national safety although the association is theoretically ambiguous. This paper therefore explores this association by estimating the effect of degrees of freedom of expression on the risk of terrorist attacks. We first note...

The following research nurtures an environment of freedom in our contemporary society. Climate change demands attention to intergenerational equity – the fairness to provide an as favorable standard of living to future generations as we enjoy today. The currently ongoing introduction of...

As the main instrument to regulate cyber activity, the most significant threat to freedom of expression on the internet in Indonesia comes from the Law No. 11 of 2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE Law). Instead of being a momentum to restore the according to human rights...

The rise of the Internet and the emergence of social media platforms have raised several questions concerning the exercise of the right to free speech as well as its judicial protection which fall under the constitutional umbrella.1 In particular, the phenomenon of social media influencers has...

Media dissemination has an important function in facilitating price discovery. Political pressure that restricts media dissemination can hinder this function and affect investors' perceptions. We investigate the magnitude and economic consequences of China's newspaper censorship, which blocks...

Introduction: Hydrocolonialism : the view from the dockside -- The custom house and hydrocolonial governance -- Customs and objects on a hydrocolonial frontier -- Copyright on a hydrocolonial frontier -- Censorship on a hydrocolonial frontier -- Conclusion: Dockside genres and postcolonial...

An internet shutdown is always a government-imposed restriction where internet service providers are ordered by a government agency to cut off internet services. An internet shutdown always imposes a blanket ban on internet access, where access to the internet as a whole is paralysed. It is not...

How will governments and courts protect civil liberties in this new era of hacktivism? Ethical Hacking discusses the attendant moral and legal issues. The first part of the 21st century will likely go down in history as the era when ethical hackers opened governments and the line of transparency...

This paper investigates the effects of state censorship of opposition media using evidence from the closing of RCTV, a popular opposition television channel in Venezuela. The government did not renew RCTV's license, and the channel was replaced overnight, during May 2007, by a pro-government...

We develop a theory of information flows and political regime change, when citizens use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for both information acquisition and protest coordination. Governments can respond by obfuscation of citizens' signal or by restricting access to ICTs used...

Popular protests and palace coups are the two domestic threats to dictators. We show that free media, which informs citizens about their rulers, is a double-edged sword that alleviates one threat, but exacerbates the other. Informed citizens may protest against a ruler, but they may also protest...

This paper examines the effects of censorship and propaganda on media consumption and government support in Russia. To measure censorship, I compare the number of mentions of the USDRUB exchange rate during weeks when the ruble went up and down, finding that Russian media outlets were more...