Saturday, January 10, 2015

Freedom and accountability of the media in the emerging democracies

Media’s role is to develop democracy, while stimulating politic interests of citizens and providing the information for citizens in order to held the government responsible for any malfunction in state system that acclaim to be in the service of the society.

by Fazli Rrezja   (Published on 01/06/2007)

Free media in democracy acts on behalf of citizens need and education that can be called also as the “guardian of democracy”.  Media plays a great role and has a deep influence in societies which are passing through emerging democracies, especially in newly emerging democratic societies where the legacies of oppression, hatred, pain, xenophobia, religious justification for war, are applied.   

      Photo source: The Guardian 

Free Media is supposed to serve in favor of process of democracy on different communities within one certain society, must constantly act to promote diversity, political tolerance, the rights and welfare of citizens, factual reality and not to develop mistrust, rivalries, hatred and misuse information like in wars in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, where media reflected in favor of conflict and violence.
 Where markets are imperfect, increased freedom of speech will be tend to exacerbate nationalist mythmaking unless institutions and norms correct the flaws in the market
The well-institutionalized market place of ideas requires anti-trust and equal time regulation guaranteeing media access, the training of journalist in the verification of sources and the separation of fact from opinion.
Without such regulatory institutions, free speech by itself will not guarantee that a range of voices is effectively heard, that competing arguments are forced to confront each other on the merits that participants are held accountable for the accuracy of their statements, that factual claims are scrutinized, that experts’ credentials are verified, that hidden source of bias are exposed, or that violators of the norms of fair debate are held up to public censure[1]      
Free speech and media is not absolute. All law systems tolerate to a certain point the code of ethics in order to protect several state, collective and individual interests.     
In emerging democracies media often is exposed toward the threat imposed by different interest groups and that’s why its role is mixed and often losses the path of impartial and balance reporting.
Narrative liberal theory of a free press offers a coherent view of the different ways in which increasingly free media strengthened the democratic process, in which, the media extended the political nation by making information about public affairs more widely available and promoting a culture of democracy. The media also empowered the people by subjecting authority to critical scrutiny and representing public opinion to government, so media enhanced the functioning in emerging democracies by encouraging constructive and reciprocal communication between different groups in society.     
Discussion of the media’s democratic role is intimately bound up with the debate about the media’s organization and regulation[2]  the principal role of the media, according to traditional liberal theory, is to act as a check on the state. So, the media should monitor the full range of state activity, and fearlessly expose abuses of official authority.     
 But, often media reporting in emerging democracies countries where the situation is fragile, reports are in a risk of losing the track of responsibility or accountability while going beyond the freedom, identity and integrity. And that’s one of the reasons why they apply the code of ethics and regulations imposed by different organizations and states  
Codes serve three basic functions. First, they outline the conditions of journalist’s accountability to the state, the public, their employers, their sources and to their profession. Second, most codes in Europe and the USA are voluntary so they act as a way of making the press appear responsible. Finally, codes are important in protecting the freedom, integrity and identity of journalists[3]  
In Kosova, after war period, the special representative of Secretary- General ordered the establishment of Temporary Media Commission (TMC) in 2000[4], to manage the frequency spectrum, establish broadcast and press codes of practice, an act as a result to help in improving reporting while the print and broadcast media in both languages were prone to issue threats of violence against groups and individuals, spread disinformation and inciting the violence.
Journalism remained a risky profession with sporadic acts of violence against both ethnic Serb and Albanian journalists reported throughout the province’[5]
 Good reporting of media is when it develops trust and respect between different cultures through the spirit of good reporting that helps in improving the democracy in certain emerging societies while it provides the assistance in foundations for political and economical order and stability.    
A role of a journalist or a reporter has a high importance in a country that is in transition and where the democracy is fragile. He/ she must access the spot of event, get the facts straight and tell the truth.
One of the main functions of the media in promoting democratization and good governance in emerging countries is to help in creation of an effective system of information where citizens can act freely in order to receive true economical, law, political and all spheres of information.
Besides, the other key factor of media in emerging countries is to monitor the function of political and social institutions in order to engage the trust or doubt of citizens in their state. Without the sufficient trust, citizens will withdraw from participation in the political processes, or even can be riot taking part into a conflict that will excavate deeper the turmoil situation in their country. Conflicts are often developed because of the disappointment of citizens on their economical welfare. Government legitimation often fades regarding to citizens losing their trust in government effective function. Jurgen Habermas has developed the theory on “legitimation Crisis”, in which people expect from their government to interfere in economy in order to provide economical welfare, if not, the legitimation of government is on doubt[6] . Most of countries that face emerging democracy also have instable economy that tackles the pulse of media and citizens.
No journalist can be completely objective. Journalists like everyone, carry the values of their own country, their religion and their own ethnic group. That is why professional journalist has standards for accuracy, impartiality and responsibility to remove our personal values and bias.[7]
Media manipulation often plays a central role in promoting nationalist and ethnic conflict, but we argue that promoting unconditional freedom of public debate in newly democratizing societies is, in many circumstances likely to make the problem worse. Historically and today, from French Revolution to Rwanda, sudden liberalization of press freedom have been associated with bloody outbursts of popular nationalism[8]       
Whenever there is a conflict there is a reason of its origin and development, and a good reporter is one who should be there to find out impartially information and be objective in his reporting. Professional journalists do not set out to reduce conflict. They seek to present accurate and impartial news. But, it is often through good reporting that conflict is reduced[9]
Media in certain situations can be a danger tool to deal with, even if journalists follow the right direction not bias and so on but on the other side there are groups who think differently and the subjectivity becomes something both sides of a medal.
Newspaper and broadcast journalism can be a dangerous profession as evidenced by the numbers of journalists and crew who are killed or injured each year in the desire to be at the scene of the action and gain dramatic stories for newspapers, magazines, radio and television [10]      
When there is a violent threat in society the media sometimes takes sides. This happened in Nepal. The government declared a state of emergency against Maoist threat. The main media agreed and did not concern itself that the emergency took away media freedoms. And the media used the government words to describe the Maoist as terrorists. It was difficult for journalists to independently report on and analyze the government or the Maoists. Journalists censored themselves and lost impartiality[11]
 In this case probably was a difficult task for a journalist to be impartial and report the information from the both sides. Their access was impossible to reach the Maoist rebels, because they have reported government word and through media Maoist were considered as a terrorist.  But, during Kosova war in 1999 while the fierce NATO’s air assault against Serbia proved to be a difficult task for national and international journalists, where they have walked in a thin line of bias reporting. BBC journalist John Simpson decided to stay in conflict zone after most of international journalists harassed into leaving by Serbian authorities. Simpson interviews with Belgrade citizens suggested growing popular support for Milosevic, the opposite key aim of the Nato attacks and he asserted this point explicitly. After Serb claimed that NATO planes had attacked a refuge convoy, his report suggested that if Serbs responded by taking foreign journalists to the site probably was a NATO attack.   All this was too much for the British government who decided to attack Simpson directly, accusing him of deliberate pro-Serbian reporting and lack of objectivity. This attack drew both national and international criticism and paradoxically helped Simpson’s later reporting on the ground as Belgrade citizens began to see him (wrongly) as on their side and allowed him to report events during the war’[12]                  
 Simpson as a journalist of a very influenced broadcasting organization(BBC) was bound by the principles of due impartiality which requires journalists to provide balanced reports free from their own partisan views, has achieved report impartially, even though he was restricted  by the Serbs on what is he allowed to report and access places inside the conflict zone.    
In spite of media in Nepal where journalists were influenced by their government, Simpson used his professional journalistic skills, by walking on the thin line of bias just to achieve in the end the truth, and his efforts to be objective were more risky and courageous than those of  Nepal journalist.     
There is undoubted lengthy history of allegations of bias in journalism in many countries, So, perhaps an examination of bias might be more profitable route into understanding 
What journalism objectivity might refer to in practice given the problems in the conceptualization of objectivity, bias can’t simply be defined as the absence of objectivity.[13] 
Moreover, the crucial role of media in the emerging democracies should be at the same time free and responsible for its reporting. Reporting on different cultural contexts in a various conflict zone is often defamatory, malicious and corrupted
 Professional media should keep itself away from bias reporting on nationalism, patriotism in ethnic conflicts, reporting on minorities and other diversity issues.
 The key of success of one professional reporter in a conflict zone or in any emerging democracy situations is to keep the right track of accuracy, impartiality and responsibility while reporting his story. The essential element in a democracy, is when well informed citizens from the media information, can make decisions in their own interest and with a good media collaboration they can stand firmly as the foundation stone of the lighthouse of democracy.

 



[1] Jack Snyder and Karen Ballentine,”Media Institution and Norms” Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas, Kijac Reader ”Media law and Ethics”

[2] James Curran, Media and Power, published 2002, Chapter 8- Media and Democracy

[3] Vincent Campbell, Information Age Journalism, published 2004” Chapter Six- News Gathering and professional Ethics.

[4] Peter Krug and Monroe E. Price, Content Regulation in Post Confict Zones, Kijac Reader ”Media law and Ethics”

[5] Julie Mertus and Mark Thompson, The Learning Curve: Media Development in Kosovo  

[6] Iain Mc Lean,The concise dictionary of Politics, Oxford University Press, published 1996.

[7] [7] Ross Howard ,‘Conflict Sensitive Journalism, International Media Support

[8] Jack Snyder and Karen Ballentine, Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas, Kijac Reader ”Media law and Ethics”

[9] Ross Howard ,‘Conflict Sensitive Journalism, International Media Support

[10] Richard Rudin and Trevor Ibbotson, An Introduction to Journalism, published 2002, “Chapter 10 -Health and Safety”  

[11] Ross Howard ,Conflict Sensitive Journalism, International Media Support

[12] Vincent Campbell, Information Age Journalism, published 2004, Chapter Seven- Objectivity and Bias

[13] Vincent Campbell, Information Age Journalism, published 2004,” Chapter Seven- Objectivity and Bias

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