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World Press Freedom Day (and a few long nights…?)

By Kaufmann | May 3, 2008 No Comments »

     Today is World Press Freedom Day.  Timely.  Because the goal of having a free press around the world remains elusive.  About two-thirds of the countries in the world (and almost three-quarter of developing countries) do not have a free press, according to Freedom House.  And there is no evidence that on average there has been a significant improvement over the past decade or so.  The number of countries formally classified as democracies has been growing for a couple of decades.  But too often the transition towards formal elections, or to allowing more than one official political party, have not been translated into a freer press.

     At the World Bank and its Institute (the WBI, where I head the Governance group during working hours…), this year we are marking World Press Freedom Day by launching a new book on broadcast media, ‘Broadcasting, Voice and Accountability’ (link here).  It emphasizes the importance of broadcast media media for making governments accountable and giving voice to the world’s poor, including those who cannot read.  The book is being launched at the UNESCO conference on Freedom of Expression taking place right now in Maputo, Mozambique, marking the ‘Day‘.  The book  reflects a 5-year collective effort by authors from the World Association of Community Broadcasters, ARTICLE 19, Global Campaign for Free Expression, Campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society, U. Penn’s Annenberg School of Communication, McGill Univ., and WBI…

     The study reviews broadcasting practices and regulations around the world, identifying those sound policies consistent with broadcasting that is free and pluralistic.  The authors (including Buckley, Duer, Mendel and Siochrú) present a set of standards on freedom of expression and analyze limits to free speech, access to information, misuses of defamation law, regulation of journalists, guidelines for broadcast regulators, as well as the roles of public service, community non-profit, and commercial private sector broadcasters.  A very useful compendium.  Admittedly, I am biased.

     More broadly, for years, and with  multiple partners, we have been contributing to the cause of media freedoms and to past events during World Press Freedom Day.  For instance, last year we provided a chapter for the book ‘Media Matters’, put together by the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD, link here), which was launched at the NED event in the US Congress marking the 2007 Press Freedom Day (I gave a presentation (link here for the video; and here for the handout).  And the previous year, at the 2006 UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference (held then in Colombo, Sri Lanka), I gave a keynote speech on the empirics of Press Freedom, Governance and Development, where I put forth a set of ‘10 myths’ for debate on this topic (link here).

     No question: we still have a long way to go in the area of press freedom around the world.  And nowadays we don’t only want to focus too narrowly on the press, of course, but on freedom of expression more broadly, and within it, of the media (see this blog in the Mail & Globe).  And since today the whole world is expected to honor the ‘Day’, rethoric and window dressing ought not impress anyone: beware of any Potemkin-like ‘Press Freedom’ celebrations (or lofty speeches) that may be officially sponsored in some repressive settings.  

     Of course, nowadays it is impossible to fool most of the people most of the time.  As discussed in previous entries, blogging and the internet are of great help in the mission to empower citizens with free speech, to mitigate the constraints imposed on traditional media, and to challenge misleading official pronouncements.  New media horizons are opening up, and citizen engagement is growing, thanks to blogging. 

     Yet traditional media still remains so very important, and thus the elusive objective of a free press is still highly relevant.  remains so important.  On this ‘Day’ it is paramount to recognize the many journalists that devote their lives to advancing free speech and ensuring that citizens have real access to information, often risking so much (see here the Internews site, for an illustration).  

Topics: Aid Effectiveness, Transparency, Voice and Human Rights | | Read and Submit Comments

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