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Neglecting The 'Right On Which All Other Rights Depend': Press Freedom In The International Human Rights Discourse, Wiebke Lamer

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Historically and philosophically, press freedom has closely been linked to the fight against tyranny and the advancement of human rights. But coverage of press freedom as a distinct human right is surprisingly absent from scholarship and the human rights agenda. This dissertation fills this gap in the academic literature by examining why press freedom has not become part of the established international human rights debate, despite its centrality to democratic theory.

It does so in three steps: First, it outlines the distinction between press freedom and other human rights to which it is usually subjugated, like free speech and freedom …