The media, censorship and democracy in Ecuador, UK, US

January 12th, 2010

Very relevant article about media and censorship that deals with recent events in Ecuador and Argentina but also relates that perspective to media and democracy in the US and the UK

A key point

…reasonable people may differ on what is the proper role of government in the regulation of media, or what limits – if any – should be placed on freedom of expression. Some civil libertarians object to laws allowing individuals to file civil lawsuits for libel or defamation, and certainly a case can be made that in the UK, for example – where the law allows a much broader range of action against media than in the US – that this unduly inhibits the press.

But international organisations or editorialists who take an absolutist or anarchist position with regard to countries such as Ecuador should apply the same standards to the US and other rich countries.

And

As Michael Copps, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission has emphasised: “Using the public airwaves is a privilege – a lucrative one – not a right.” He has argued, in the New York Times and elsewhere, that the US government should use its legal authority to deny the renewal of broadcast licenses to media outlets that do not honour their pledge to serve the public interest.

Food for thought:

As Jay Rosen posted last year

In the age of mass media, the press was able to define the sphere of legitimate debate with relative ease because the people on the receiving end were atomized connected “up” to Big Media but not across to each other. And now that authority is eroding.

Do news brands want the right to charge for the right to lie to you?

Straight line thinkers struggle in a world of no straight lines

Citizen journalism, truth, trust and power

The fall of Tom Daschle and the rise of public man

Analogue media pushes the panic button

And ultimately will our media look like this? Or indeed Pro-publica (wikipedia) and what migth be the consequences of that?

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