Mission statement
Although discussions on freedom of speech and the press started several hundred years ago in Hungary as well, meaningful discourse on their role and necessary boundaries in the modern world could only begin – for obvious reasons – after the political change in 1989. The editors of the journal are lawyers and other researchers dealing with theoretical and practical issues concerning this field, trying to form their opinion on specific questions according to value-based rules and morally founded but sometimes contradictory arguments, believing – every now and then – that legal regulation, the modus operandi of the media, or even our perception of the democratic public sphere may well be influenced by these opinions and debates.
The rapid developments in society, technology and also the media world, as well as the arising new constitutional challenges all call for a continuous reframing of the basic questions and old answers related to freedom of speech and of the press. Hence, there is a need to publish and maintain journals where scholars and researchers can expound substantiated and mature standpoints on the functioning and rules of the public sphere, where debates can take place and where new generations and university students can taste all the excitement and beauty of this field, too. A journal is also a crucible for different approaches and cultures. The field of freedom of speech and freedom of the press does not have a local or regional scope out of necessity; as such besides analysing the traditions and unique legal system characteristics of nation states, a journal should also focus on European and even global discourses. For this very reason we aim to publish international academic literature in our journal by translating papers on current topics into Hungarian and presenting new monographs and we also rely on the helpful advice of our international editorial committee.
Our journal is committed to democratic values, state sovereignty, protecting national traditions, freedom of the media, human dignity and protecting private property and the common achievements of European constitutionalism. An academic journal is required to provide space for meaningful discourse according to the aforementioned values, without bias, in line with the clear criteria of a learned approach. Accordingly, our journal represents an open forum where the academic community and the general audience interested in the topics examined can find noteworthy or even debate-provoking thoughts. The editorial staff of the journal decides on publishing the papers submitted by the authors exclusively on the basis of academic criteria, using a double-blind peer review.
Budapest, 23 October 2019
Editorial Committee and Editorial Board of In Medias Res