Censorship: A Development Killer

Blog: Karla Sponar

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote: If you can’t talk about something, then you should remain silent.

During the last weekend in April President Obama was able to speak. He had decided to bring an uncomfortable subject into the open. He had found the right words for this subject. His tone was moderate, but strong enough to draw attention to a terrible injustice.

With what justification-or lack of it-should the American President remain silent on the subject of the large-scale murder carried out between the wars on the Armenian people? Maybe because the subject makes politicians in other countries uneasy? Or maybay because they prefer to cover up something that has never been officially critically appraised and which puts pressure on international relations? If the authorities decree silence on a subject of international concern, then it becomes important to talk about just this. Whoever orders silence on a subject of public interest indicates an unwillingness to solve problems.

For this reason free media should not be seen as a luxury for rich countries. Freedom of the media is an element of basic human rights. The watchdog-function of the media strengthens good governance and boosts accountability. Nevertheless the level of free media in the world is going down, for the 6th year running, according to the latest report of “Freedom House” on the world situation, with particular regard to the situation of the media. On top of this are more subtle forms of media control. Open censure is unpopular, worsens the image of a country in international ranking and undermines the confidence of investors. Regularly published results of analysis in various countries together with the annual reports on good government and the Human Development contribute to this awareness. This is more than just paper. It is a process to make information about development more transparent world-wide.

In order to distract attention from political systems which bypass human rights, it is obviously no longer enough to conceal control of the media under the cover of attractive-sounding concepts with democratic vocabulary. The fate of the Venezuelan “Decree concerning social responsibility in Broadcasting” (in short “Ley resorte”) is an example of this. This decree enables the government to decide whether published information is useful for society or not and under this pretext officials are able to ban unwelcome media reports. The most prominent example of this kind was the closing-down of the private broadcaster RCTV. The director of the State-sympathetic TV-station Telesur recently vent his anger on all private radio-stations, accusing them of constantly generating media terror.

Besides such general accusations is a growing trend to put censorship into private hands, sourcing it out, so to speak. For this purpose governments seek out Internet firms, Blog-servers, cyber cafes and mobile-phone operators in order to observe users, to suppress their unwanted publications and, at times, to intimidate the authors of such articles. Also, the use of undercover agents to manipulate discussions on the Net is expanding.

Looked at these tendencies from the economic point of view – both is damaging: censorship als well as outsourcing. Even the Consultancy firm McKinsay. admits this now. At the end of the day the companies are paying out more. The highly paid consultants, who innumerable times advised companies to put out sections of their businesses to tender, are now back-tracking, as they announce freely on their websites.

The Unesco Analysis, which carried out research worldwide into the implications of free media for the development of countries, is also freely available. On balance the results of these investigations reveal that an independent media forces people to become more transparent in their dealings and more in touch with the interests of voters. On top of this, States which advocate media freedom in a politically correct manner create a climate of economic growth. An example from Uganda, where they were fighting corruption in the promotion of school-aid, confirms this. Through an initiative to increase access to information it was possible to ensure that 80% of the designated school-aid funds were actually invested in schools. Before this initiative only 20% of the funds were getting through.

Freedom House also reports that the number of civil Internet- activists has increased. They have improved their methods and are now able to make previously suppressed information available. Even some poorer States were able to improve their ranking in the area of Internet freedom, due to new laws, which make access to information easier.

On top of this, the use of the Internet in 6 of the 15 countries, where research was carried out, has doubled in the last two years. In 3 countries the number of people with access to electronic information has increased by as much as 50%.

Free media benefits the whole social spectrum. Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel prize for Economics, pointed out years ago that severe food shortages do not occur in countries with a free press. The full effect of free media is able to unfold when it produces access to a variety of content and opinions and enables responsible journalists to do their work unhindered. Partners in both the North and the South have to consider how they can encourage progress in this area by passing relevant laws and by offering other incentives.
Karla Sponar

Journalist for the Public Service Broadcasting in Germany, consultant in media development and lecturer for Media and Governance.

Next Blog:

John Samuel, International Director of Actionaid -an international development agency whose aim is to fight poverty and injustice- and editor in chief of “Infochange News and Features”, a website which aims to inform on issues that are being pushed into the margins by the mainstream media. It seeks to enable readers to perspectives on rights and development issues, so that they can participate in drawing up an agenda for a more equitable and sustainable world.

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