It would be the right time to take the opportunity offered by the celebration of World Press Freedom Day - marked on May 3 - to reflect on the chequered state of the press freedom in the world. When this day was set up, the focus of attention was print and broadcasting journalism. Today new information technologies have given rise to diverse ways of communicating. Citizen journalists accompany professional journalists in the quest and divulgation of information while blogs provide an alternative medium to the more traditional journalistic media.

This day had been proclaimed by the United Nations General in 1993. May 3 was chosen as it is the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek. The document calls for free, independent, pluralistic media worldwide, characterising free press as essential to democracy and as a fundamental human right.

There are many countries where the press has no or very little freedom and, consequently, little or no power. Journalists are targets in many countries. Several have been killed, maimed, detained or attacked in other ways while fulfilling their duties. There are, of course, many countries where the power of the press is great thanks to efforts and battles conducted in past decades, which resulted in the enhancement of press freedom. Thanks to this power of the media, corrupt governments have been brought down, potentially harmful legislation aborted, positive social causes advocated and much-needed change effected.

The negative flip side indicates that this power was not always exercised responsibly. There are instances where the press is the vehicle for incitement or degradation or vile invasions of privacy or for spreading hatred and xenophobia.

The media's freedom from political interference is guaranteed in European and North American countries. But can the same be said with regard to interference from commercial powers? The commercial interests that control media organisations are, in many countries, becoming stronger and their capability to influence editorial content tends to increase as well. Today, we are in a situation where fewer and fewer mega-companies are taking control of the world's most powerful media.

This year's celebration of Press Freedom Day in Malta came at an interesting point in time. We have just come out of an intense political campaign. The Times has been on record in stating that the press did not always exercise its power with responsibility.

There were many journalists who behaved as propagandists first and as journalist second - at best. Will we learn from this experience? Will the owners of the political media gather enough courage to reassess the role of their media to make it more journalistic and less propagandistic? One truly doubts whether this positive development will happen. But positive elements there are. The government has once again reiterated its commitment to put on the statute books the Freedom of Information Act. We hope that this will be done with urgency as it is an important tool that will strengthen the media's role to inform the citizens about issues that have important effects on their own lives.

Press freedom does not only depend on liberal laws, enlightened owners and professional journalists. It also depends on a mature audience. People are today more conscious of their rights as consumers and take steps to defend them. But they are not aware enough of their rights as media users. Most of the sins committed by the media are committed with the complicity of a complacent public that fails to act as a watchdog of the media. Press freedom will dwindle without a watchful and vigilant audience.