Press Freedom as a Logistical Notion

This paper proposes an approach to analyzing press systems that avoids the rigidity of current classifications. The paper argues that the value of rigid classifications has been reduced by revisions of libertarianism, rapid homogenization of global political culture, and the growth of technologies that defy information control. The logistical approach provides an alternative to rigid classifications by demonstrating how the marketplace of ideas is kept viable in disparate press systems through the interaction of seven logistical factors. The paper recommends a shift from concerns about the effect of censorship on the marketplace of ideas to concerns about its logistical cost—in moral and material terms.