What is a free press and why is it important for democracy? Lesson 4 of 6
GCSE • Politics, Parliament and Government • Model curriculum
What is a free press and why is it important for democracy?
This lesson is part 4 of a sequence of 6 lessons addressing the key enquiry: Should the UK be called a democracy?
In this lesson, students will recap and build on their knowledge from the previous lessons. They will investigate the importance of having a free press in a democracy. They will consider the characteristics of the media in a democracy and how free the press is around the world. They will explore whether there are ever times, even in a democracy, when it is acceptable to use censorship and will consider their opinions on different situations related to press freedom and democracy. This lesson has been designed for delivery as a double lesson. Timings for each task are given as guidelines.
Students will work towards answering the following questions:
- What is a free press?
- Why is press freedom important in a democracy?
- How free is the press in different countries?
- Why might information be censored?
- Is it ever acceptable to control the media?
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