WORLD DIVIDED 60-40 ON IMPORTANCE OF A FREE PRESS
December 11th 2007 10:09
World opinion is divided on the importance of having a free press, according to a poll conducted for the BBC World Service.
Of those interviewed, 56 percent thought that freedom of the press was very important to ensure a free society. But 40 percent said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully.
Pollsters interviewed 11,344 people in 14 countries for the survey. In most of the 14 countries surveyed, press freedom (including broadcasting) was considered more important than social stability. The strongest endorsement came from North America and Western Europe, where up to 70 percent put freedom first, followed by Venezuela, Kenya and South Africa, with over 60 percent.
Some developed countries which strongly believed in press freedom were critical of their own media's honesty and accuracy. In the US, Britain and Germany, only around 29 percent of those interviewed thought their media did a good job in reporting news accurately.
- From MediaBlab by Peter Olszewski via Factiva
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Comment by Stanley
another big issue is media ownership too because what is the point of a free press when corporate owners don't buy into the concept of the media as a watchdog to those in power.
Comment by Ahmed
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Comment by Jeff Musall
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Comment by Lilla
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A free press IS incredibly important, I agree, as it ensures the transparency of governments and the judicial system itself. Without it, there would be no peace and harmony, only fascism and dictatorship... how could anyone doubt that?
Sensationalism, using sex to sell stories, and making media big business, is another issue, one that - in turn - is perhaps one of the things required of stronger legislation... to stop media monopolies from taking a foothold?
Lilla ...
Comment by Peter Olszewski
Your thoughts are echoed By John Pilger who wrote the following in the current issue of the Australian Rationalist magazine:
Edward Bernays, the so-called father of
public relations, wrote about an invisible
government, which is the true ruling power
of our country. He was referring to journalism,
the media. That was almost 80 years
ago, not long after corporate journalism was
invented. It is a history few journalists talk
about or know about, and it began with the
arrival of corporate advertising. As the new
corporations began taking over the press,
something called ‘professional journalism’
was invented. To attract big advertisers, the
new corporate press had to appear
respectable, pillars of the establishment —
objective, impartial, balanced. The first
schools of journalism were set up, and a
mythology of liberal neutrality was spun
around the professional journalist. The right
to freedom of expression was associated with
the new media and with the great corporations,
and the whole thing was, as the prominent
mass media critic Robert McChesney
put it so well, ‘entirely bogus’.
For what the public did not know was
that in order to be professional, journalists
had to ensure that news and opinion were
dominated by official sources, and that has
not changed. Go through the New York Times
on any day, and check the sources of the main
political stories — domestic and foreign —
and you’ll find they’re dominated by government
and other established interests. That is
the essence of professional journalism. I am
not suggesting that independent journalism
was or is excluded, but it is more likely to be
an honourable exception. Think of the role
Judith Miller played in the New York Times in
the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Yes, her
work became a scandal, but only after it
played a powerful role in promoting an invasion
based on lies. Yet, Miller’s parroting of
official sources and vested interests were not
all that different from the work of many
famous Times reporters, such as the celebrated
W H Lawrence, who helped cover up
the true effects of the atomic bomb dropped
on Hiroshima in August 1945. ‘No Radio -
ctivity in Hiroshima Ruin,’ was the headline
on his report, and it was false.
Consider how the power of this invisible
government has grown. In 1983 the principle
global media was owned by fifty corporations,
most of them American. In 2002 this
had fallen to just nine corporations. Today it
is probably about five. Rupert Murdoch has
predicted that there will be just three global
media giants, and his company will be one of
them. This concentration of power is not
exclusive of course to the United States. The
BBC has announced it is expanding its broadcasts
to the United States, because it believes
Americans want principled, objective,
neutral journalism for which the BBC is
famous. They have launched BBC America.
The BBC began in 1922, just before the
corporate press began in America. Its founder
was Lord John Reith, who believed that
impartiality and objectivity were the essence
of professionalism. In the same year the
British establishment was under siege. The
unions had called a general strike and the
Tories were terrified that a revolution was on
the way. The new BBC came to their rescue.
In high secrecy, Lord Reith wrote anti-union
speeches for the Tory Prime Minister Stanley
Baldwin and broadcast them to the nation,
while refusing to allow the labour leaders to
put their side until the strike was over.
So, a pattern was set. Impartiality was a
principle certainly: a principle to be
suspended whenever the establishment was
under threat. And that principle has been
upheld ever since.
Comment by Mr Nice Guy
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Yes - as Ahmed so cynically and simplistically puts it - there are publishers and media tycoons who have specific agenda's and barrow's to push - however there are also enough checks and balances in the free society to 'keep the bastards honest' so to speak.
An arguement can of course be raised that sensorship (such as during times of war) is in the best interests of a nation - however that is a matter for further debate.
My personal opinion is that if the public are so easily duped by the likes of Murdoch etc - then we've become a society of lemmings.
There are good editors, good journalists and good reporters out there without agenda's - our task is to make informed judgement based on all the information we're presented.
. . . for the pen is still mightier than the sword
MNG
Comment by Ahmed
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Comment by Lilla
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Thank you for printing for me, I hadn’t read it, but it is spot on… ironically, it is ‘free speech’ and good journalism that has allowed this article to be written in the first place.
around the professional journalist.
HAHAHAHA I love the way he says that…I’ve been there … years ago, wild eyed and naive I did a degree in this ‘professional spinning malaise’ … only to discover that by the time I had earned that degree, I had nothing more than acquired a piece of toilet paper worth $15,000, because ‘independent journalists,’ who want to report real truths don’t last in the corporate media world of today …
So, thanks to free speech, I set up and ran an independent newspaper for seven years instead ... and actually got some good things done with it too.
The way I see it, the monopolies have already ensured that the media is as good as gagged as far as absolute truth goes, but it’s the continuation of a 'free press,' that allows articles and truths like JP’s here to flourish and reach ‘some’ people.
Unfortunately, as MNG puts it, there will always be lemmings, no matter which system we live in... for them no truth is possible.
Lilla …
Comment by Peter Olszewski
Back in the 70s i was part of the "alternative" press movement and published, among other things, The Australasian Weed newspaper which was a newspaper for dope smokers. We were banned every where, printers were warned off from printing us and there were many visits from the police.
I thought at the time, so much for the free press concept.
Comment by katyzzz
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I'm sure a lot of our press is not so free but other of it is, thank God.
Comment by Lilla
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Nice to meet you, it sounds like your troubles may have had something to do with the fact that the product your paper promoted was against the law... not that I agree with that ruling, but we are s'posed to follow the law of the land... or push to change it... which is probably what you were trying to do, right?
Yep, it's pretty sown up, I agree.
I bet you have some interesting stories from that enterprise
Lilla ...