Recognition of the importance of information, to economic and social well-being, predated general acceptance of the idea that citizens should have access to a wide range of information, to enable them to form opinions and make responsible political judgements. The demand for access to information has had a long history in social and intellectual thought, often accompanied by the idea of providing information for profit (James, 1991: 37–41). As the power of the monarchy, aristocracy and church splintered, challenged by revolutions, and social and political movements, the press emerged and assumed greater power (Stephens, 1988: 170). The press intruded itself into the political system, to become the principal agency for the provision of information to facilitate political choices, and the relationship between the media, politicians, government and citizens encapsulated in the shorthand description, the Fourth Estate, developed. In 1855 George Reeve traced the development from: