With printing, widespread access to classical texts, including in the original ancient languages, fueled humanistic and Renaissance culture.
The first forms of newspapers, posters, gazettes with a few sheets, which were far more widespread than books, were also born.
The era of publishing also developed-since Gutenberg, both inventor and entrepreneur, destined to exert a profound influence on modern and contemporary society, first with the book industry, then with newspapers in print, radio, TV, and finally the Internet.
The “95 Wittenberg Theses” themselves, elaborated by Luther as a manifesto of protest to the Catholic Church, were printed and widely circulated. The press enabled their rapid and wide propagation, including in translation, thus contributing to the circulation of the Reformation idea.
The ability to print and disseminate works without the direct control of ecclesiastical or monarchical authority lays the foundation for the principle of freedom of the press, that is, the right to express and disseminate opinions independently.
Hence also a reflection on the ethics of information: journalism, still nascent, begins to structure itself as an activity responsible to the public, based on the truthfulness and social utility of the news.
The right to freely manifest thought by speech, writing and any other means of dissemination is mandated in modern constitutions. The press cannot be subject to authorization or censorship. However, journalists’ freedom of information and criticism is limited by the protection of the personality of others, and it is their unbreakable obligation to respect the substantial truth of facts.
The thousands of casualties among journalists in authoritarian regimes and on the war fronts are a moral tribute to the principles of freedom and truth in the modern age.
Italiano