Defend us from the Defenders

In defense of a plutocratic definition of democracy, the self-proclaimed free world leaders care little about the freedom of those who find courage enough to disagree. Freedom of thought and expression, peaceful protest and criticism as well as defending civil liberties are less possible than just a year ago. In the name of freedom, western Governments have introduced a series of measures and legislation that curtails many of the freedoms often taken for granted and deeply embedded in an open society. Doors are closing for sure as democratic rights are under pressure to become more conditional or a matter of privilege.

The kind of news and information on TV screens from London to Rome to D.C. is more filtered and less informative today than it has been in many years. Too few citizens appear to notice that what is printed in their daily newspapers, originates from a small circle of news agencies who are more concerned with selling spectacular news items than providing broad news coverage as a commitment to public service. Analytical reports and political criticism "doesn't sell", at least not easily and in any case the entertainment value is low. News on TV, presented by near-celebrity speakers in a show business like manner, the importance of content as a defining category for news reporting, simply fades away. Facts and breaking news stories have long replaced investigative journalism and contextual analysis. In the fast-paced virtual world, "info-tainment" rules. Without access to the Internet or if lacking the knowledge of where to "surf", most citizens are either excluded from alternative news sources or effectively shielded from information that is relevant for understanding local, national and international events. Information choices are put forward on overloaded commercial platforms where items of a critical and/or non-commercial nature are rarely served.

Reporters without borders, a Paris-based association committed to defending press freedom around the world, has just published a first worldwide index of press freedom (http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_articl... . There are several real surprises the report reveals, not least of all the remarkable low score of some western countries commonly believed to be deeply democratic. Thus Hong Kong (18), Benin (21) and Chile (24) easily surpass right-wing Berlusconi's Italy, ranked 40. The self-proclaimed leaders of the free world, the USA and Britain, fail to make it into the top ten, ranking only 17 and 21, unimpressingly behind Slovenia (14) and Costa Rica (15). Ecuador ranked 20, easily outranks rightist Austria (26) or conservative-led Spain (29). As the organization explains, the "index of press freedom is a portrait of the situation based on events between September 2001 and October 2002. It does not take account of all human rights violations, only those that affect press freedom". It should be used as an indicator to warn against complacence in guarding press freedom and as it shows clearly, not all is well at home, where gathering, selection and dissemination of news and information is increasingly concentrated in ever fewer individual or corporate hands.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic