11 increasingly less an individual function for all, turning increasingly into a function of the few. Today, the mass media are no longer an expression of the individual freedom and autonomy of the citizens, rather they privilege the commercial or ideological interests of large corporations, institutions or interest groups. Now, it has become necessary to defend not only the freedom of the press, but also freedom vis-à-vis the press.29 55. In these circumstances, it is urgent to protect freedom of expression and of the press from the press itself. However, the content of the American Convention not only guarantees the press a broad area of freedom of action; it also protects the individual from the social power of the press. When this is used abusively there is a violation of the same right that it is supposed to protect and violations due to the abuse of the power of the press are usually devastating and difficult to fully reinstate or repair. 56. Another aspect of the media organs (television and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, or websites) which becomes important to verify is whether, despite acting in the public sphere providing information, they are private for-profit companies and they act in keeping with the private interests and opinions of the groups they represent.30 57. The question here is, what are the terms of this relationship between private agents and the public sphere. As holders of power, these entities need to be monitored and held to account. As actors in the public sphere, working with fundamental rights, they possess public obligations. In this context, the mere application of private rules does not encompass the true breadth of the reality created in the sphere of the media. 58. It should also be considered that there is a growing debate on the responsibility of private entitled for the violation of human rights, in the sense that they must respond for their acts at both the national and the international level. In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council adopted the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which emphasize the following: Principle 11. Business enterprises should respect human rights. This means that they should avoid infringing on the human rights of others and should address adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved. Principle 12. The responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights refers to internationally recognized human rights – understood, at a minimum, as those expressed in the International Bill of Human Rights and the principles concerning fundamental rights set out in the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Principle 13. The responsibility to respect human rights requires that business enterprises: (a) Avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts through their own activities, and address such impacts when they occur; (b) Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts. Principle 14. The responsibility of business enterprises to respect human rights applies to all enterprises regardless of their size, sector, operational context, ownership and structure. Nevertheless, the scale and complexity of the means through which enterprises meet that responsibility may vary according to these factors and with the severity of the enterprise’s adverse human rights impacts. 59. Regardless of the branch to which they belong, companies must respect the internationally recognized human rights, and may be held responsible for the reparation of possible violations that occur in the exercise of their functions. Specifically, with regard to the media, it is important to remember their relevance for the consolidation of active citizenship, which entails a press whose credibility before society stems from its independence and its 29 Moreira, Vital. O direito de resposta na Comunicação Social. Coimbra: Coimbra Editora; 1994, p. 9 Fonseca, Francisco. Mídia, poder e democracia: teoria e práxis dos meios de comunicação. Rev. Bras. Ciênc. Polít., Brasília, December 6, 2011. Available at: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S010333522011000200003&lng=en&nrm=iso. 30