Lesson 24 — Activity 4: The Freedom to Report

When we are deciding whether a report or news story is credible, we need to consider whether the reporter is free to report the information without censorship.

You will look at this aspect in this activity.

Censorship is the blocking or deleting of material or ideas that someone does not agree with. The more freedom an individual or organization has to report about events, the higher the credibility of those reports.

Courtesy of Felton Davis, flickr

 For example, if news reporters are restricted in their coverage of a war or conflict, the public may perceive the media to be less credible. If the news reporters were restricted to certain comments and were only allowed to view contained areas within the war-torn country, the public would wonder if they were seeing the true story about the war.

Some people are opposed to tobacco and other questionable products being allowed to link their product to popular events. They feel that censorship needs to occur so that these products cannot be presented in a glamorous and appealing way.

In Canada, the 1997 Tobacco Act restricted advertising to young people, but sponsorship and lifestyle advertising is still allowed. Tobacco companies can still link smoking to exciting and glamorous activities and events. Not only does the sponsorship associate the product with a fun event, but the audience (including young people) is exposed to the imagery for an extended time.

(CC BY 2.0) by Todd Ehlers

 Today, as sponsorship advertising is phased out and advertising becomes more restrictive, advertisers are trying new tactics. These include direct mail, point-of-sale advertising in retail outlets, promotional allowances, such as payments made to retailers to facilitate sales, and promotion of non-tobacco products, such as specialty items distributed with the purchase of cigarettes and branded T-shirts.

Self-check!