Censorship and Self-Censorship of Media: What was not Taken into Account by the Researcher

The article is on a Lithuanian communication scientist Gintaras Aleknonis's conception of New Censorship. It looks into the scientist's approach towards New Censorship's mechanisms of functioning, origins and possibilities to overcome it. The underlying theoretical presuppositions of this approach are examined critically too. It is argued that three presuppositions are particularly questionable. The first states that journalists do not follow qualitative criteria of content selection while compiling and disseminating information. The second is related to characterization of information users as passive and controlled by media. The third assumption states that the so called New Censorship cannot be eliminated by financial means. The article also disputes the assumption grounding the whole conception of New Censorship that the media has become a censorship instance instead of a custodian of freedom of information during the period of Lithuanian Independence.