Lots of people are annoyed by all the lies in newspapers and magazines. They make up things about people and give them a bad reputation. For example, the newspaper “Expressen” wrote that the actor Mikael Persbrandt was treated for alcohol problems in a special home when he wasn't. What is the reason for newspapers to lie?

In todays society everybody has to earn money. Money gives you opportunities and respect. Newspapers and magazines companies are making money when people buy their news. If nothing dramatic or exiting happens, they will lose money because then no one wants to buy them. That's why they make up lies, they need to sell their newspapers and earn money.

In fact, there's no law that says that they can't lie. We have something that is called “freedom of the press”. That means they are allowed to print what they want. The reason why we have that is that if we're not allowed to say what we want, it's not a democracy. But the newspapers have their own rules of ethics that they try to follow. For instance, that they will not insult people's integrity.

Actually the media is the people's source of information. If they didn't exist and investigated things, then we wouldn't know anything about other countries situations or even what our own government is doing. So shouldn't they always say the truth so we trust them?

But media companies are also a company just like a clothing store or a shoe shop. As I sad, today everybody has to get money. If a clothing store can sell clothes with bad quality, then why can't newspapers do what they can to sell their product?

So, shall we accept that newspapers lies or shall we not? After all, they can destroy people's life but we're also a democracy and that means that we can say and think whatever we want.