E‐government: developing state communications in a free media environment

Douglas A. Galbi
2001 Foresight  
Persons' freedom to communicate, and their ability to do so effectively, has long been recognized as a crucial component of a society that respects human dignity and provides the conditions for humans to flourish. Government actions that suppress persons' speech and other forms of communication have been rightly subject to scrutiny and challenge. Governments have also recognized the importance of affirmative steps to enhance persons' opportunities for communications; such steps include
more » ... education and supporting public forums. Communication is not only a personal and political good but also central to economic development. With the growth of the information and communication industries, freedom in communications is becoming increasingly important to persons' entrepreneurial and productive activities. While the political and economic importance of personal communications is wellestablished, government communications has been largely relegated to invisibility in policy discourse. 2 The inevitability of government communications is a banality: government as a purposeful organization of persons and physical objects (buildings, cars, desks, computers, etc.) does not exist in a state of symbolic suspension, and even government officials' attempts to be silent can send loud messages. Of course elected and even appointed government officials are keenly concerned about press and television coverage, and there are norms and laws concerning how public officials can use their offices as part of their own permanent popularity campaigns. But most of most government institutions are non-partisan and not personalized. Most government communications seeks to provide information, to shun expression of multiple,
doi:10.1108/14636680110803012 fatcat:g5fnxbdgujgvzab6rhf6r4tp7y