It is easy to devalue the importance of newspapers in our society when doubts are cast on the credibility and integrity of this legendary messenger of public information. It is easy to forget what newspapers have done to government and to the community when cynicism and skepticism became the mantra of an overconfident bureaucracy. The civil society must time and again be reminded what the late US President Thomas Jefferson had said in 1787 of the indispensability of the existence of newspapers: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Government without newspapers? Or, newspapers without government? The world’s most influential newspaper, The New York Times, in an editorial yesterday, reechoing the ubiquitous belief of US President Jefferson on the importance of the press, penned: “From the poorest country to the richest, a welter of academic research since then points to the importance of an independent press — mostly newspapers — in disseminating hard-to-get information, mobilizing the public and putting pressure on government and businesses in favor of the public good.”

What will happen to society with the absence of an independent press? Nothing can be farther from the truth on what The New York Times had pointed out in an editorial: “The argument that if newspapers go bust there will be nobody covering city hall is true. It’s also true that corruption will rise, legislation will more easily be captured by vested interests and voter turnout will fall.” Of course, the primordial importance of the existence of newspapers in a democratic society does not license newspaper publishers and editors to indulge in self-gratification in the guise of public service. The rule of law is supreme above all members of society: be they newspapers, businessmen, or public officials. A society that is inhabited with lawless citizens is doomed to self-destruction. Give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, but Caesar should not use its borrowed authority to sow terror and intimidation so as to dodge public criticism and manipulate the presentation of truth.

For newspapers, they should also act just and fair at all times for the common good and for the sake of truth, and nothing else but the truth. A deviation of the press’s role in our society will just add chaos to an already chaotic world. And the peaceful co-existence between the press and the government is a robust symbol of democracy. Everything will fall apart in the absence of this social paradigm. We should also remember that the finality in the grand scheme of things is that newspapers or the press are not bound to serve the interest of the government, but the people’s. A “government of the people, by the people, for the people,” under all circumstances, owes its existence to us, citizens of this Republic, including those who devote their lives to uphold the freedom of the press. And before we forget, the Post’s editor and publisher has just been spared from unnecessary legal headache after the city prosecutor’s office junked the libel case filed by Carmen Mayor Che Delos Reyes. Facing libel, by the way, is part of our ongoing test of credibility and integrity.