Free news media are important because they inform people without having any constraints or regulations placed on them, allowing them to deliver uncensored news to the masses. There is a downside to this though. No regulation of the media allows biases, personal feelings, and just plain incorrect information to masquerade as hard facts.

When news media are unrestrained, they are able to present information that may be critical or may be in favor of a government, allowing all sides on an issue to be heard, instead of a unilateral progovernment point of view. This allows the media consumers to make informed decisions, based on their own ideals and views, not on the ideals of some faceless bureaucrat.

In addition to this, free news media are able to expose faults in the government. Exposing mismanagement and corruption yields public pressure that forces change in the government, therefore fixing the...