Text in English / This thesis investigates whether or not the press reported unethically on South Africa’s 2014 General Elections in the weekly national newspapers the City Press, Sunday Times and the Mail & Guardian. This study was undertaken on the basis of the ongoing contention between the press and the state which has resulted in polarised positions between both institutions amid accusations of press bias. It has given voice to measures to regulate the press through a Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT) and proposed state regulation. This could negatively impact free speech, public interest and ultimately democracy. This researcher contends that this will not be in the best interest of South Africa. Through this study, it is argued that an ethical press that executes a libertarian duty to society, integrating a watchdog role over the state, while simultaneously overseeing its social responsibility to society, upholds the welfare of society and democracy and should therefore not be regulated by the state. The elections thus forms an important platform for the press to demonstrate unbiased ethical reportage to the state in the wake of being regulated and prove its fundamental role in society’s interest and democracy. Therefore, to determine whether the election coverage was ethical or unethical, the problem investigated whether the press, that is, the print medium in the form of the newspaper, reported truthfully, in a balanced manner and independently for South Africa’s 2014 General Elections, upholding its watchdog and social responsibility roles. This was done through a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the front-page news reports of the aforementioned national newspapers for the cross sectional time-frame of 13 April to 11 May, 2014. This study argues that language is the most important channel of communication for the exchange of ideas and can be used as an instrument to calculatedly manipulate message and reinforce a particular viewpoint. Hence, it contends that CDA can effectively be utilised as a conceptual framework for language analysis to determine unethical press coverage by journalists. The study identifies and applies two significant theoretical models that is, the Libertarian and Social Responsibility models for the elections which further serves as a form of triangulation to verify the results of the CDA. The study challenges the conventions of a distinct libertarian or a social responsibility model for the press, arguing that both models are not mutually exclusive for the elections. The analysis shows that the press apply both social responsibility and libertarian roles simultaneously in election reporting. It further maps out the incorporation of the developmental journalism model where the press upholds the best interests of both the electorate and the state ethically, without the requirement of a state-regulated media. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

Gli sviluppi tecnologici vissuti nell'ultimo quarto di secolo hanno determinato forti mutamenti non solo nella materialità dell'esistere, ma anche nella dimensione spirituale della persona. L'avvento della cittadinanza digitale ha obbligato ad un ripensamento del catalogo dei diritti e delle forme di esercizio degli stessi. La libertà religiosa, tanto nella sua dimensione individuale quanto in quella associata non solo ha subito l'influenza di tali cambiamenti, ma si è dimostrata in molti casi settore privilegiato per verificare la validità delle nuove forme di governo derivanti dallo sviluppo sempre più massiccio delle tecnologie informatiche. A partire, dunque, da un ripensamento dei rapporti tra diritto e religione sono stati individuati alcuni settori specifici di analisi al cui interno saggiare le nuove forme di governo elettronico, per comprendere le nuove declinazioni del diritto di libertà religiosa nella società digitale. Tali settori sono: la presenza delle confessioni nel sistema della stampa nazionale; il nuovo mondo di Internet e le problematiche connesse alla tutela dei marchi e del sentimento religioso; la presenza delle confessioni religiose nel sistema radio televisivo; la tutela dei dati sensibili religiosi nel nuovo Codice sulla privacy. / Last 25 years, technological developments have determined very important changes both on the material side and on the spiritual one of the people. The introduction of digital citizenship has obliged to rethink the bunch of rights and the way to apply them. The religious freedom, both individually and in association, has suffered the effects of these changes, but moreover has been a preferred sector where testing new governance rules needed to manage the innovations due to constantly increasing presence of information technologies in day by day life. Therefore, starting from a deep rethinking of the relationships between law and religion, some sectors of analysis, where testing new electronic governance rules, has been identified, in order to understand new evolutions of religious freedom rights in the digital society. These sectors are: presence of religious denominations in the national press; Internet world and issues related both to the trademark management and to religious sentiments; presence of religious denominations in radio-TV system; protection of religious sensitive personal data in agreement with the new privacy Code.

The digital age has reconfigured the security services, especially the forms of mass surveillance aimed at preventing various threats to society. However, this scenario may become problematic from the perspective of protecting the freedom of the media and journalistic privilege. The author of this article offers an overview of the scope of the protection of the journalistic privilege pursuant to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as its management in Poland from the developments prepared by its Constitutional Court. / La era digital ha reconfigurado los servicios de seguridad, sobre todo las formas de vigilancia masiva que buscan prevenir distintas amenazas para la sociedad. No obstante, este escenario puede convertirse en problemático desde la perspectiva de la protección de la libertad de los medios de comunicación y del privilegio periodístico. El autor del presente artículo nos ofrece un panorama sobre los alcances de la tutela del privilegio periodístico en el Convenio Europeo para la Protección de los Derechos Humanos y de las Libertades Fundamentales, así como sobre su tratamiento en Polonia a partir de los desarrollos realizados por su Tribunal Constitucional.