The liberal democratic norm of the press acting as a check upon political authority springs from the press being assigned to an independent position in the political process. If the press is not considered to be fulfilling such a role, the presumption is that there are constraints upon its ability to do so arising from the internal direction of editorial policy, the influence of political and legal requirements and market conditions. In assessing whether New Zealand's seven metropolitan dailies are able to act as such a 'control' in the political process, investigation centred first on describing press development and the nature of the discussion concerning the role of the press in the political process. Senior journalists directly involved in the operation of editorial policy on these papers were interviewed with the purpose of establishing whether the press does hold any independent power and the extent to which the various constraints restricted editorial comment.

Findings from the data show that the press is not independent of its position in the political communication process, between political actors and its audience, as an information channel. Newspaper economics, now demanding maximum circulation levels to maintain advertising revenue, restrict the degree to which the metropolitan press can engage in active political commentary as it endeavours to maintain a politically diverse readership.

Informal political linkages and internal constraints have lessened in importance as market dictates have increased. This latter development, combined with a consolidation in the number of daily newspapers and the continuing presence of legal constraints, questions the validity of notions of a liberal democratic conception of the role of the press as actually operating in the New Zealand political process.