Media Freedom: To Your Health

Michael Hedges May 6, 2013 - Follow on Twitter

A healthy media environment needs a balance of many things, healthy competition being one. New media – spawn of the internet – can be suitably expansive but it doesn’t replace the need for newspapers, radio and television. Openness is always the measure of greatness.

Coincident with World Press Freedom Day, the US-based NGO Freedom House released its annual survey of global media independence. The index ranks 197 countries and territories according to the conditions, somewhat subjectively, under which their media functions. There was little to cheer, globally, as countries with media assessed as free dropped to 63 from 66 in one year and those deemed not free rose to 64 from 59.

Most attention when the Freedom House index is reported goes to those countries at the bottom – Turkmenistan, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Belarus – and those rising or falling dramatically. The West African nation Mali, wracked by civil war and a military coup in 2012, saw its ranking fall the most of any country, to 91st and from 43rd in one year. Burma’s ranking rose to 162nd from 187th “due to broad openings in the media environment,” said the report. In those at the bottom, unchanged year on year, “independent media are either nonexistent or barely able to operate, the press acts as mouthpiece for the regime, citizens’ access to unbiased information is severely limited, and dissent is crushed imprisonment, torture or other forms of repression.”

New media has “expanded the flow of news and information” in many countries, said the Freedom House report, but dictators have risen to the challenge. “Repressive measures included the passage or intensified use of new cybercrime laws; jailing of bloggers; and blocks on web-based content and text-messaging services during periods of political upheaval.” Government control over media in Russia, Ukraine, Ecuador and Venezuela limited broadcast news coverage of elections thus, in the opinion of Freedom House, “to skew coverage, and ultimately votes, in (their) favor.”

Media freedom continues to suffer in Southern Europe, notably Greece and Spain, as dismal economics closed newspapers and government austerity measures forced staff cuts at public broadcasters. “Italy’s score remained at 33…despite a decrease in political influence over media content since Silvio Berlusconi’s departure from the premiership in late 2011,” noted the Freedom House report. 

Rankings in the Freedom House index are similar to those in the Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) press freedom index, released in April. In the 2013 RSF index of 179 countries, press freedom in Mali posted the greatest decline to 99th from the very respectable 25th one year on. Press freedom in Burma improved, as with the Freedom House 2013 index, to 151st from 169th. The RSF index gave Malawi and Ivory Coast the biggest one year index improvement.

Scandinavian and northern European countries with strong media freedom traditions have long topped both the Freedom House and RSF press freedom indexes. The top five in the 2013 Freedom House index are Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Finland and the Netherlands. The 2013 RSF index adds Luxembourg and Andorra but drops Belgium and Sweden from their top five.

Finland, which constitutionally guarantees freedoms of expression and the press, has been at or near the top of both indexes for years. But from the inside media watchers see the need for significant changes. “In Finland, freedom of expression is somewhat shaky due to a lack of competition,” wrote Media Viikko editor-in-chief Paavo Vasala (May 3).

“The State maintains a near-monopoly in (public broadcaster) YLE, which may engage in competition with commercial media and for which citizen’s money is forcibly collected,” he offered. “YLE's current position is contrary to the Western democratic idea and the size of the company should be dismantled because it will lead to censorship.” He also blasted newspaper Helsingin Sanomat as “too powerful and domineering, economically and politically.”

“Freedom of speech in Finland will increase in the future,” he explained. “As the internet era emerges, new media and communication channels are actually competing with each other. This give us hope for a healthy future.”

See also in ftm Knowledge

Media in Scandinavia

Big media companies in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are riding a sea of change. The digital media revolution is nowhere more apparent than in Scandinavia. This ftm Knowledge file Media in Scandinavia looks at rapid change in the most 'wired' neighborhood. 103 pages PDF, Resources (June 2012)

Order here

Press/Media Freedom - Challenges and Concerns

Press and media freedom worldwide is facing challenges from many corners. As authoritarian leaders impose strict control over traditional and new media with impunity, media watchers have concerns for democracy. This ftm Knowledge file accounts the troubles of this difficult decade. 88 pages. PDF (December 2011)

Order here