Today 3rd May is World Press Freedom Day and the focus this year is on Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and Impunity. The 3rd May was chosen in 1993 by the UN General Assembly to celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom, to recognise the contribution of reporters and to society and to evaluate the status of press freedom in the world.
In this context, a number of findings about the status of press freedom in the world are interesting to look at:
– Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) has a yearly report in which it rates countries performance on indicators such as the number of attacks against journalists (assassinations, imprisonments, threats, etc.) and media (censorship, pressure, search warrants, etc.). Conclusion: the top countries for 2006 are from Northern Europe (Finland, Iceland, Ireland and Netherlands) and the three worst are Erythrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea. Denmark which was leader in 2005 has clearly suffered from the affair about the caricatures of Prophet Mahomet.
As for Mauritius, it has slightly improved its ranking (unless it’s the others who are worsening!) from 34th in 2005 to 32nd in 2006. It has also moved up one place on the African continent from 4th to 3rd mainly because South Africa goes down from 31st to 44th in the world ranking.
– “Two journalists killed every week over last 10 years”, says a journalist safety survey released in March 2007 by the International News Safety Institute. The Top bloodiest countries over the past 10 years have been Iraq (138), Russia (88), Colombia (72)…
– According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, African countries top the list of worst countries for press freedom. Ethiopia is the country where freedom of the press has the most deteriorated as its ‘government launched a massive crackdown on the private press by shutting newspapers and jailing editors’. Two other African nations are also on the dishonour roll: Gambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
– And Freedom House’s report on the Freedom of the Press in 2007 said that in terms of population, only 8% of the world’s inhabitants live in countries that enjoy a free press, while 39% have a partly free press and 43% do not have a free press.
I find Mauritian Newspapers to be poor honestly. Except for maybe the Sunday editions, the actual content, analysis, and discussion of issues other than political are quite shallow. The reporting most of the time is just basic.
Well I would not make such a sweeping statement but I do agree that there is lots of room for improvement.
Nonetheless, we have to be thankful for having a ‘relatively’ free press.
What I fear the most in the local context is the power of economic actors of the corporate world. Much (but not all) of what is written in the press tends to be sourced from PR, specially Corporate PR and I suspect that news about the corporate world are not fully investigated as ad revenues (without which media outlets would not be able to live) would be threatened…
Just a question. Where do people in Mauritius get their news from. Radio, newspaper, tv, internet? Also do people in Mauritius get all their news from one news source – ie. world news, gossip, sports, business, or do people use different newspapers for different subjects. Does UoM have a newspaper or weekly student journal?
Everywhere in the world, most people rely on traditional mass media for news of all kinds and the Internet is also grabbing a lot of attention. There is in fact a lot of fragmentation as multiple media vehicles are now accessible compared to say 10, 20, 50 years ago, etc. There has been an explosion of sources. Yet, there are many convergences as lots of traditional mass media tend to carry the same kind of news thanks to the impact of PR…
In Mauritius, there is a quite high number of news outlets for the size of the population, which is a positive thing. Yet, there is also a certain tendency to do the same thing across all media, i.e. infotainment and sensationalism. There is definitely variety in number but not really in nature except for a few variations here and there (e.g. Defi Plus and Radio Plus focusing more on pseudo-investigative + populist journalism, 5-Plus being more sensationalist cum populist, L’express and Radio One having a pseudo-corporate view, Le Mauricien posing as a neutral paper, etc.)
What is probably lacking is intelligent reporting, enlightening journalism and respectful and fully ethical presentations of all sides of a debate, etc. At the same time, I also acknowledge that there are many good journalists as there are also many crap ones, specially the lazy ones which never question anything, and are happy to reproduce press releases verbatim or almost.
UOM has a newsletter coming out soon. I think the Students Union also has a newsletter but it is a bit erratic.
We have a blog for Communication students though that is accessible to all: http://comstudies.wordpress.com
Well on press freedom day how ironic is it that Murdoch is bidding $5bn for Dow Jones (the Wall Street Journal) and Reuters has received a bid. So much for press freedom, the Bancroft’s will find it hard not to accept a 70% premium. The current stock price before Murdoch’s intention to acquire the company was around $20, most people thought the most it was and would ever be worth is around $36, Murdoch is offering $60 per share. As if the WSJ wasn’t conservative enough, Murdoch and the already neo-conservative opinion pages of the Journal yuk! Of course no else will counter bid or buy any traditional print media because the internet has taken over. From a business standpoint, he’s buying the Journal because he needs something for his Fox Business Channel coming out this Fall. He needs to somehow counter CNBC’s dominance and the Journal’s unrivaled network of distinguished reporters would certainly prop up his channel. My gripe is another Murdoch channel – if any have ever watched Fox News Channel. He doesn’t allow his papers which include the Sun and the Times of London in the UK, to be independent they consistently represent his neoconservative views. Interestingly though CNBC currently has an exclusive contract with Dow Jones until 2012. Murdoch for his part claims he would set up separate independent board, the same way he has set it up for the Times; yea sure, appointed by him.
The impartiality from Reuters to Dow Jones have in part been protected and are still till today protected through a trust (reuters) or by dual voting structures (Dow Jones and NYT).
The challenge for all traditional media especially where the internet is so accessible in one form or another, comes from the internet. Demand for media content – words, music, video and data – is large and growing, but the way consumers access it is changing. Established distribution channels, such as newspapers, including the Financial Times, must therefore invest to build up their online presence. Profits from their traditional business and stock market valuations are generally in decline, which makes companies such as Dow Jones vulnerable to bids as never before.
The Wall Street Journal’s reputation has been built on a willingness to invest in robust reporting. These are qualities worth defending. A vigorous and independent press is an essential part of the fabric of open societies. The challenge is to reconcile this public good with the pressures of the marketplace and the legitimate interests of investors.
You’re right. I forgot to add concentration as a threat to press freedom and objectivity.
The same is also true to a lesser extent in Mauritius as big corporations are major shareholders in media groups and these media groups tend to buy over other media vehicles or launch new titles in unexplored segments in order to be able to offer a larger audience coverage and interesting advertising packages to ad spenders (i.e. corporate actors) as well as to be able to control and orientate coverage that is favourable to their interests…