In a lecture on May 1st 1840 with the title "The Hero as Man of Letters. Johnson, Rousseau, Burns", Thomas Carlyle was the first to coin the phrase "The Fourth Estate".

Or turning now to the Government of men. Witenagemote, old Parliament, was a great thing. The affairs of the nation were there deliberated and decided; what we were to do as a nation. But does not, though the name Parliament subsists, the parliamentary debate go on now, everywhere and at all times, in a far more comprehensive way, out of Parliament altogether? Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech, or a witty saying; it is a literal fact, — very momentous to us in these times. Literature is our Parliament too. Printing, which comes necessarily out of Writing, I say often, is equivalent to Democracy: invent Writing, Democracy is inevitable. Writing brings Printing; brings universal everyday extempore Printing, as we see at present. Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of authority. It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures. the requisite thing is, that he have a tongue which others will listen to; this and nothing more is requisite. The nation is governed by all that has tongue in the nation: Democracy is virtually there. Add only, that whatsoever power exists will have itself, by and by, organized; working secretly under bandages, obscurations, obstructions, it will never rest till it get to work free, unencumbered, visible to all. Democracy virtually extant will insist on becoming palpably extant. —

(Carlyle was speaking in 1840 but apparently predicting the existence of a virtual world, predicting the internet. Today, with the internet, it is possible to contemplate a national political campaign with a new political party with the resources of a mouse and a budget of £100.)

The three estates derive from French Government and comprise the clergy, the nobility and the people. British democracy inherited the terms from the French. Modern British democracy puts most emphasis on the people though vestiges of the clergy and nobility persist in the House of Lords.

Carlyle was intent on establishing the place of The Man of Letters as Hero and does not elaborate on his ideas of the role of The Fourth Estate.

A free press is essential to a functioning modern democracy.

We don't have a free press in Scotland today.

The Scottish media dance to the tune of the commercial interests who own the stocks and shares. The Scottish media make the news, they don't report it.

This campaign is about freedom and one of the fundamental freedoms we must have is a free press. Free from commercial pressures, free from Government influence and pressure.

We don't need Alistair Campbell charging down to the BBC to launch an angry tirade. We don't need the spectacle of Greg Dyke resigning rather than supporting his news reporters.

Andrew Gilligan was right. The Hutton Report was a very expensive Government whitewash.

What's the solution?

We must nationalise the media. Not to establish State control. The exact opposite.

We should have three media centres in Scotland. In Glasgow to serve the southwest third of the country, in Edinburgh to serve the southeast third and in Aberdeen to serve the north, highlands and islands.

These media centres would have components of print and broadcast journalism; TV, radio and internet. It will be clear that the relative importance of each is in flux at the moment and each media centre should encourage new and innovative ways of communicating.

These nationalised media centres would be established with an adequate budget then offered as franchises to independent operators. Annual budget increases would be tied to an index of inflation with the opportunity for review to consider increased capital costs due to new technologies.

The regional press is an important component of Scottish life. Recent years have seen a consolidation of newspaper titles under common ownership. Cost saving measures have accompanied the consolidation, staffing levels have been reduced. Quality local reporting is an endangered species. We should examine ways to fund and coordinate local media centres with the three national media centres identified above.

Investigative reporting has all but disappeared from the Scottish media. There has been more investigative reporting on this web site in the past month than there has been in the entire Scottish media in the past year.

The occasional flury of activity if there are taxi chits to embarass or if there is a muddle, not a fiddle don't pass as serious intent. There is a herd mentality. Five prostitute murders in Ipswich and all of the nation's media descend on the town. A dead swan in Cellardyke has the same effect. A week later and its old news and the herd charge to the next place of interest and we never find out the answer to the question that was on everybody's lips.

All of the synthetic sympathy for the dead prostitutes doesn't have an iota of impact on Margo MacDonald's campaign to have a safety zone for sex workers in Leith.

A modern twenty first century democracy must have a free press. A press staffed with reporters with the freedom to do investigative reporting of government or business misdeeds. A press that is prepared to listen to the stories of the poor, the disadvantaged, listen to those suffering from miscarriages of justice. A press that acts as the national ombudsman.

A free press must be protected by the constitution from government interference because a free press is an essential safeguard in an open democracy from the tyranny of the other branches of government.

In a society where the rights of the people are paramount, a free press is the ultimate safeguard of those rights.