Government Business Relations - Research Paper Example

GOVERNMENT-BUSINESS RELATIONS CHAPTER: I “The media plays an important role as a watchdog of the political process. Has it replaced parliament in this role?” TABLE OF CONTENTS HEADING PAGE I. Introduction……………………………………………………………..1 II. Background……………………………………………………………..2 III. Media as a Watchdog of Politics in Australia ………………………..3 IV. Recommendations and Managerial Aspects and Arguments………..5 V. Conclusion……………………………………………………………….6 VI. Bibliography……………………………………………………………..7 I. Introduction: “Without Freedom of thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public Liberty, without Freedom of speech” [Benjamin Franklin quotes (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)] Australia’s Federal System of Government is deep-rooted on the liberal democratic autonomous convention instituted on the fundamentals of British and American freedom of speech and liberty of thought translated in the exclusive Australian aura established as the Commonwealth of Australia since 1st January, 1901. Australia is constitutionally devoted to its various progressive steps and changes one such being the introduction of Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Article 19 incorporated through the Australian Press Council established in 1976 and also the enactment of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (1980 No. 23, Reprint) and the Broadcasting Services Act (1992) to uphold their strong public propaganda for independence of speech and freedom of media. Free Media or Press for the instance, in the truest sense of the term, advocates liberty of thought and speech in the vision for the welfare and appreciation of the public demands against any sort of vested interests and hence affirms all the responsibility and accountability for their actions. Such is the charisma of the advancement and far reaching impact of the media worldwide that it can develop and build a nation to its progressive path both in the socio-political and socio-economic agenda, as well as it holds the greatest power to uproot, scandalize and destroy the ill-fated political practice that may malign the countryman’s constitutional rights or cultural good faiths. This essay proposes to firstly delve deep into the power of media and how it influences different political scenarios in brief outline, and then it focuses itself on the dynamics of mass media as a watchdog on the functioning of the political framework and the electoral strategies as studied in depth in the backdrop of Australia. II. Background: The print media covering the newspapers, magazines and the like as well as the electronic news media comprising of the television, internet, radio and several other electronic broadcasting altogether constitutes and builds up the mass media which poses an integral part of congregating and convening the public awareness, conscience, concern, judgement and most important the people’s voice. From time untold media has played an intrinsic, indispensable and pivotal role in the national and international awareness building endeavours both at the time of the harmonious operations of the state as well as during the sensitive situations of the nation to impact a significance influence and revolution in shaping the history of mankind. Hence media at many a time is regarded as the guardian of the law and the watchdog of the political happenings of the country. The magnanimous and ubiquitous significance of the media is well evidenced to influence its path-breaking effects both for the advantages and disadvantages, benefits and losses of the humankind to witness the complete transubstantiation in the historic cases such as the Watergate Scandal (1972-74) which caused the ignoble resignation of the 37th President of the United States of America Mr. Richard M. Nixon, and also consequential in the case of the mysterious death of the world famous admirable Diana, the graceful glorious Princess of Wales (1st July, 1961-31st August, 1997). In this literature the far-reaching and momentous prominence and the relevance of media in the Australian Federal Constitution and its political affairs is scrutinized and explored extensively and comprehensively. III. Media as a Watchdog of Politics in Australia: The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia is based on a bicameral legislative model illustrated and represented both in terms of British and American traditions. Many a time media in the form of television, newspapers and the like has been the fundamental source of information to share, notify, educate and update the common people of Australia about the true scenario and the happenings of the politics and their parliament, this sequentially directs and encourages the voters to take decisions especially during the election time. However Australia is still to assign and accredit well-defined legislations and statutory rights to ascertain the true safeguards and intents for the expression of speech, the freedom of media and the liberty of communications. But this inelasticity amongst its own constitution has never dampened the spirit of the journalists and media-bodies to ‘let the cat out of the bag’ and investigate deeply into the objectives of impartial and immaculate practices of politics, fair judgements and safeguarding methods for the Australian citizens, and to summon the common people to voice their concerns. Thus in a way the press in Australia like the rest of the world acts as a balancing force between the affirmations and the deviations that the political protectors of the nation and the law enforcement authorities vow to commit, which otherwise would have been the tasks of the parliamentary bodies. Above all of these however the Right to Information Act (RI) or Freedom of Information (FOI) (first enacted in 1982) is not stringent, open or citizen-friendly in Australia like in all other developed nations. FOI “has been extensively criticised for the delays, omissions and costs involved (Snell, 2002; de Maria, 2002; Martin, 2003), and in some instances for political interference (Sharah, 2002)” [Freedom of the Press in Australia by Associate Professor Chris Nash Director, Australian Centre for Independent Journalism Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Technology, Sydney http://www.safecom.org.au/press-freedom.htm ] None the less due to lack of any defined strong legislative enactments in Australia media have both positive impacts such as media pluralism and independence of expression, as well as negative effects such as media concentration and narrow publicity stunts. Media pluralism according to Gillian Doyle denotes distinctive owners of diverse media bodies to voice and broadcast the multifarious independent thoughts, unprejudiced expression of political opinions, and most importantly participations of citizens from various walks of life to represent within the media. [Doyle, Gillian (2002) Media Ownership, Sage Publications, London]. The forces of media concentration are evident in the following statements; “In the wake of the 2007 Rudd Labor victory, Radio National, presumably emboldened by Labor's success and no longer needing to display even a pretence of balance, omitted Henderson’s regular and long-running weekly commentary spot from its 2008 Breakfast line-up.” [Styles, John (March 9, 2009) Media Watchdog Bites (online) Available from: Read More