Exploring the Impracticability of Press Freedom during a Political Transition

This article examines the conceptual approaches to press freedom and delineates the impracticability of both the Western libertarian and development models in post-communist Eastern Europe and democratic evolving Third World societies such as those in Africa, where the ubuntu approach is embraced by many of the countries. The article explores the impracticability of the Western libertarian model of press freedom that emphasizes on the absence of government intervention in a media system. In situations where such interventions exits,as is the case with the development and ubuntumodels; I examine how these ideologies areunrealistic in either promoting press freedom or the development goals, which they aim to achieve. The article argues that press freedom in its real sense is impracticable to be achieved anywhere in the world because of some unaddressed lapses under different contexts and circumstances in its theories.