The stellar list of contributors to this book includes Nobel Prize winner and Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Irrational Exuberance author Robert Shiller, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The theme on which they areall passionate is the importance of a free and independent press. As World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn points out in the foreword to this book, "a free press is not a luxury. It is at the core of equitable development." Contributors to this volume explore the role of the media as a watchdog of government and the corporate sector, the media?s power to influence markets, its usefulness as a transmitter of new ideas and information, and its ability to give a voice to the poor and disenfranchised. They also tackle the potential harm an unethical, propagandistic, or irresponsible press can cause and the impact of insult laws and other policies that hamper the operation of a free press. Several contributors describe the...