App 'Censorship' Has German Tabloid Fighting Mad
spiegel.de
spiegel.de
OK, Bild, you don't like that Apple's new policy is screwing with your promo app, I get it. But can we cut the "freedom of the press" bull crap. Not that I should expect rationality and perspective from a tabloid rag, but is it even worth the energy to get into that argument - does anyone who matters buy that line?
After all Apple does censor (if censorship is defined as checking content before publishing and rejecting certain content based on certain criteria) - but that certainly doesn't have to be a problem. After all editors in chief censor, too (using that same definition).
We have no problem with that because there are several competing newspapers which create ample pluralism without any need to intervene when editors in chief censor.
We (i.e. Germany) don't rely on that when it comes to broadcasting. That's why we have public broadcasting institutions. They were created because it was believed that merely private broadcasting is unable to create ample pluralism. Too few frequencies, too expensive equipment - a technolgy to which only a select few have access. Not enough for a democratic society. Or so it was thought.
This is not to claim that any of those views (i.e. private competition among newspapers creates ample pluralism, the same won't work with broadcasting and public broadcasting can solve that problem) are correct, it's just to say that we traditonally have no problem treating media organisations differently than, say, manufacturers of toys.
It's a valid argument to have whether Apple should be allowed to freely censor or not. Ok, maybe not right now (the App Store is still somewhat unimportant and far from having any kind of monopoly on paid media content), but at least in principle the discussion is not without merit.