The political economy thesis of the media explains that the content of the media produced by the media organisations depends on the economic base of the particular organisation. This influences the filtering process of the news and the manner in which it is encoded for the audience.
Now, if a journalist working for an organisation which is known to have a Pan-Arab stand because of its funding and appeal to the Arab audience , expresses on his/her Facebook/Twitter account a view polar opposite to what the organisations stands for or supports, it becomes controversial.
Yes, journalists too are humans and have a right to expressing their opinion but let's not forget they are opinion makers as well and hence, this puts them in a tricky position.
So , to answer how free are journalists to express their opinions on their personal social network accounts, I say: free, just like any other person but only if their views are in tandem with the media organisation they represent. Otherwise, not much.
