A liberty right simply means not standing in the way of someone doing something (e.g., freedom of the press). A welfare right requires that an active role be played in making something available (e.g., health care, or, in this case, information). It can be argued that access to information is a welfare right because people need information in order to make many decisions that deeply affect their lives (voting, finding a job to support themselves, making health care decisions, etc.). This is a consequentialist viewpoint: Without information, there will be negative consequences to society. A natural rights theorist might argue that humans, as rational creatures, have a basic right to information, and if nobody actively provides that information, the right to information is not being fulfilled. From a Rawlsian standpoint, we do not know where we stand in society, and therefore do not know how easy it is for us to obtain information (some segments of the population, e.g., the elderly or the poor, have greater difficulty obtaining information). Thus, we must actively provide information to level the playing field for information seekers.