On Rule Of Public Interest In Media Law

Starting with the analysis of the concept of "public interest", we see that "public interest" is a kind of independent interest that was enjoyed by majority citizens. It is the common pursuit and the highest goal of human society. And it was reflected in journalistic activities from many aspects. But anyhow we can't give an accurate definition of "public interest". Thus, we use this concept as a rule in jurisprudence which can convey the spirit of the law and also can prevent the abuse or the alienation of "public interest".In the theoretical vision of media law, with the great urgently used in society, the rule of public interest was based on serial theories about journalism, jurisprudence, politics and social science, and it was protected by the law.In the practical vision of media law, public interest was reflected in many aspects, like national security, social order, administration of media, tort (defamation, privacy, copyright, etc.), and information disclosure and so on. We see that rule of public interest is the legal limit of the freedom of press. It is the power source of administrative activities about media regulation. It is universally accepted subjects of defense used by media in tort. According to this rule, the media have the right to do journalistic activities, even if the activities damage the interest of some groups or certain citizen, or even the interest of the government, the media has the right of immunity.The application of this rule in China was discussed in the last part of my dissertation.Since the journalism of China is undergoing a sort of transition and we have nospecialized media law or something, there're some difficulties in applying the rule ofpublic interest in China. But we can take some measures to implement or enforce the ruleto ensure the freedom of the press and to protect public interest as hard as we can.