本文挑戰所謂自由報業與國家介入傳媒市場兩者之間不能相存、甚至對立的傳統觀點。文中提出二問：台灣的自由報業（free press）並不自由，癥結何在？自由報業若要走向自由，途徑為何？透過歷史與理論的耙梳，本文檢視了台灣自由報業實質上並不自由的政治經濟結構因素。為了改造這種實質不自由的、不利於民主的自由報業，讓台灣民主與報業有機會重新恢復生機，本文主張國家必須積極作為，以傳媒政策引導、而非放任商業市場運作機制，並且保障多樣性媒介發展的政治與經濟基礎，因為民主與自由的報業雖然是無價的，但絕非自動、先驗的存在，更不是免費的，公民社會必須責成國家積極介入傳媒市場，共同為自由報業付出無法旁貸給（政治及商業廣告主）的成本。

This article challenges the conventional wisdom that the free press is opposed to the idea of state intervention in the media market. Two questions are raised in this article: Why the so-called ‘free press’ in Taiwan is actually unfree; It’s important to consolidate and deepen Taiwan’s democratization by means of making the currently ‘unfree press’ free, but how?This article first gives a theoretical and historical account of Taiwan’s currently unfree ‘free’ press, arguing that the free press is in urgent need of re-construction. It is followed by a section on the political economy of the ‘unfree’ free press, arguing that the free press is not for sale, and that it is certainly not for free, but somehow the state (and/or the democratic society at large) has to pay for it.