The Rise of State-Supported International News Media Organization - Essay Example

?The rise of Supported International News Media Organization Introduction Media plays a very critical role in providing information to the public and has been used in very many ways to bring up personalities, and at the same time to pull them down. In some cases, media has faced reasonable hurdles in achieving their objectives, as some of the totalitarian governments regimes have restricted operation of the media whereby the information disseminated by media must be approved by the state in such regimes. Furthermore, journalists working for the media firms in such states have also been inhumanly treated for allegedly publishing controversial reports about the government. Internationally, media has faced a number of challenges in their endeavours to make progressive reports to the public since the law has been too restrictive to the media, their reporters have been killed in cold blood, and they have been censored among other incidences such as raiding of the media houses to disrupt their normal operations. Even with the advent of the freedom of the press, there are still a number of impediments that the media still faces more so from the political class. Media reports and opinions are very important for key political personalities and they will be monitoring what the media say about them or political parties, and this has contributed to the challenges facing the media houses whenever they report controversial reports relating to those with political influences. The Rise of State-Sponsored Media Organization As has been indicated in the introductory paragraph above, most of the governments have decided to initiate their own media organization that propagates on those information that depicts them in good light while it does the opposite to the opponents. Most of the media houses sponsored by the state operates in disguise presenting a false facade to the public that they are independent and authoritative media houses interested in informing the people about issues but the information they do release is skewed on them. The state uses such media houses to accomplish their missions; enabling them to go on a rampage propaganda spin, for public relation and controlling the influence of the opposition. In this view, most of the international media organizations have been instituted for specific reasons, they are the mouthpiece of the states that have sponsored their being. Russia Today, RT Media Organization Russia Today, RT is a media organization that receives it funding directly from the Russian government, that is, the Federal Budget of Russia (Posel 2012). This money is channeled to the media organization through the relevant agency on Press and communication of the Russian federation. The fact that the government funds the media organization gives clear indications that it is in a way related to the government and will not be hard on them; hence it is construable that the Russia government do achieve some specific interests using the media organization. RT is a propaganda machine for the government of Russia in the international platform and that explains why the government in 2005-2006 did invest money in the media organization to the tune of $ 30 million. The fact that RT is a government supported media organization is accentuated by the fact that it has a close ties with RIA Novosti, RIA Novosti was a propaganda machine that was being used by the government of Russian way back during the period of cold war. RIA Novosti was initiated in 1941 following the resolution of the USSR Council of People’s Commission and the Communist Party Central Committee (Beumers 2011, p.84). The two bodies agreed to form the media organization as part of the Soviet information bureau, the formation of NIA Novosti was mainly to report of the international military events and the events of the domestic life in both the radio and periodicals (Posel 2012). RIA Novosti changed its name to Information Agency Novosti in the 1990s following the decree that was given by the then president Mikhail Gorbachev; Gorbachev in his demand to change the name of the media organization also imbued the media to have powers of providing information support to the USSR policies, both domestic and foreign. Later RIA Novosti creates RT (Russia Today) so that it could have a global information platform, whether RT was to remain an independent media organization was put to question when the government assertion that it will. This was clearly impossible given the fact that the government supported it; it had to be soft to the government contrary to the declaration of the government. The inability to be independent was further corroborated by the fact that most of the location that was taken up by RT was initially the same locations for RIA Novosti (Posel 2012). Following the criticism, that has followed the creation of RT and the state funding that has been used to support it, the media has distanced itself from the funding. It says that the funding that it receives form the government should not be anything that should be seen as more than meet the eye, they say that the government funding is more or less a formality and should not be used to politicize the media organization. They have asserted that they do their work independently without any coercion form any quarter and that the support they get from the government should not be used to antagonize the media house. With the tag of the Russian propaganda mouthpiece at the time of its formation, RT has put a consistent protest over the perception and has since morphed into a blend of the British BBC and the CNN of the US (Voltmer 2006, p.42). Just like the two media organizations CNN and BBC, RT has had avalanche of guest, which includes Alex Jones and former writer, Julian Assange (Posel, 2012). In the advent of the alternative media houses, it is extremely challenging to ascertain those media houses that do not succumb to control from the globalists, most of the news that go to the public are subject to serious editorial policies and this makes it impossible to ascertain the original version of the story line. Al Jazeera Media Organization One of the most dominant media organizations today is Al Jazeera owned privately by the Al Jazeera Media Network with its headquarters situated in Doha, Qatar. It was initially intended to air the Arabic news and current affairs, but Al Jazeera today has several networks around the world with multiple languages that they use to pass news around the world. Even though Al Jazeera is mainly known for his TV broadcasting, it has also established internet option of broadcasting information. Until the year 2011, the government of Qatar owned Al Jazeera but then and now, they have emphasized on the independency of their editorial system, a claim that has been seriously contested since most of its funding are channelled by the government of Qatar (Stanford 2008). The United States Department of State through wiki leaks that reported that the government of Qatar is manipulating the coverage of the media organization to serve its political interests also reported it. The Guardian in 2012 also reported that Al Jazeera’s editorial independence is supposed to be questioned, this was following the report that claimed that the media director of news, Salah Negm intercepted and included the speech that was given by the leader of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani about the Syrian civil war. In the report, it is claimed that the members of the staff did protest on the scandalous inclusion of part of the leader’s speech since it was a repetition of the earlier call by the leader for the intervention of the Arab in relation to the war (Stanford 2008). It was alleged through Guardian reports that the government of Qatar was keen in consolidating control of the Al Jazeera English version. The case in Al Jazeera shows another perfect scenario in which the governments do want to have control of the media to propagate their own interest and to sieve those information that would make their reputation be at stake when released to the public. The need for the governments to gag the media is also seen in the news released by Al Jazeera about Egypt and their need to censor certain media organization. Following the upheaval that was brewing in Egypt, he government realized that the media houses were responsible for fuelling the anti-government revolt and wanted to enact some laws that would have regulated the flow of information to the public, this was crafted carefully to crack on the dissenting voices. The bill that was drafted claimed that the freedom given to the media was responsible for the declining national unity, order, values, and social peace (Seib 2008, p.53). The bill also proposed that those found guilty of airing and disseminating news that negated the listed values would be imprisoned for a period between one month to three years depending of the gravity of the matter, it also proposed for confiscation of the broadcasting material as well as the suspension or cancellation of the broadcasting license. In case of culpability, fine of 10,000 to 50,000 Egyptian pounds was part of the content of the bill that was meant to gag the media (Stanford 2008). According to Gamal Eid who was the executive director of the Arab Network for Human rights Information reacted on the move as cynical attempt by the government to strangle the burgeoning and expanding democracy in the region. Eid added that it is not under covert that Television, the internet has been a source of problem for the government in relatively long period of half a decade, and that they are the most important part of the movement that is witnessed in Egypt hence the government wishes to put more restriction on them. Journalist in Egypt staged several demonstrations against the proposed law and appealed that Mubarak was not supposed to accent on the bill, as it was blatantly repressive to the media and would engulf the media organization to be engulfed with fear (Kamalipour 2009, p.48). They insisted that instead the government should move towards giving the media freedom as long as the information aired is not scandalously and with ulterior motive meant to demean the position of the government. China Central Television (CCTV) Media politics has played itself between some of the most controversial world rivalries in term of economic policies, the US predominantly capitalist and China who are predominantly communist have coalesced in the mucky world of media politics. CCTV in 2012 launched their English version in America, CCTV America based in the Washington, and experts have perceived the inroad made by China to be very categorical in seeking soft power influence through the media (Rudolph 2013). The entrance of the CCTV in the American crowded media landscape is one of the elaborate plans by China to increase their influence overseas; in confirmation of this statement, Beijing has also significantly increased its media presence in the continent of Africa as part of making forays into the world. To depict the media politics that surrounds CCTV America, it has been accused of down playing some of the very sensitive stories from China while those relating to America has been hard-hitting than those that are reported by the domestic media houses in the US (Rudolph 2013). This accentuates the belief that the formation of the America Affiliate media organization by the CCTV is not in good faith, there is a strategic reason why the affiliate organization was formed, and it has to be seen for what it is-to serve the interests of the Chinese government. The media organization depict them as a favourable country through which other countries can do business and make international ties, it is supposed to expose the strength of China to the outside world and not her weaknesses (Sun and Chio 2012, p.61). China being the second largest economy in the world needs more international attention for business ties, they produce more good, the fast advance technologically, and all these needs ready market that is only available in the international market hence their media adventure in most parts of the world. Media Censorship in China Contemporarily, it is construable that one of the countries with the most complicated and sophisticated media censorship is China. It is very interesting on how the communist party that has formed the government relates with the media houses (Magoon 2010, p. 25). The government in china has a tight control of the media houses to the extent that all the traditional radio stations, televisions, and the Newspapers are all owned by the government, this implies that there is no information that is released without being okayed by the government to be appropriate for the public (Li 2013). The flow of information is highly controlled by the government; there is no freedom of the media and they only air the information that has been directed by the CPD (Donald, Michael and Hong 2002, p.91). The directive is not only given to the state owned media houses, it is a unilateral obligation that has to be complied with even by other private media organization, the central propaganda, a department owned by the government is responsible for monitoring the daily post and news reports circulated by the various media houses. Even though the government through censorship has partly succeeded in controlling the information flow in the country, the new wave of social media is certainly going to prove difficult to censor. It should also be known that the Chinese government has also blocked the use of international social media like Facebook, twitter, and YouTube (Li 2013). Role of the International Media The international media play very important information in disseminating information around the world, most of the international media use a language that most of the people around the world is compatible with and this means that the audience for the international media is completely wide and diverse. Unlike the local media, the international media should be focused on those information that attracts international attention, they should report on the major international happening so that informed choices can be made in terms of peoples itinerary and investment opportunities. In this effort, the international media should also foster international peace, they should be used to weave the unity thread among the nations and foster the required peace that is most needed for the prosperity of every nation (Garmise 2006, p.63). The international media should not be used as a spy tool for a country’s ulterior motives as most of them have painfully fallen in a trap. He international media should also take the responsibility of making certain documentary of areas that are affected by some of the natural calamities and to which there is a humanitarian crisis, in so doing, it can attract international benevolence to help raise the condition of the victims. A perfect case is the Haiti earthquake, dissemination of such news would help realize faster solution through collective participation of the entire global population. It should also highlight the rich and unique cultural diversity that the different parts of the world present and use them to show our strength in diversity. References Beumers, B. 2011. The post-Soviet Russian media: conflicting signals. London: Routledge. Donald, S, Michael K. and Hong Y.2002. Media in China: consumption, content and crisis. London: Routledge Curzon. Garmise, S. 2006. People and the competitive advantage of place building a workforce for the 21st century. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2006. Kamalipour, Y. R.2010. Media, power, and politics in the digital age the 2009 presidential election uprising in Iran. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Li, R. 2013. "BBC - Blogs - College of Journalism - Chinese media censorship: all-pervading, increasingly challenged." BBC [Online] Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/blogcollegeofjournalism/posts/Chinese-media-censorship-all-pervading-increasingly-challenged [accessed June 20, 2013]. Magoon, K. 2010. Media censorship. Edina, Minn.: ABDO Pub. Co. Posel, S. 2012. "Russia Today: State-Funded Propaganda Masquerading as Alternative Media Occupy Corporatism. [Online] Available at http://www.occupycorporatism.com/russia-today-state-funded-propaganda-masquerading-as-alternative-media/ [accessed June 20, 2013]. Rudolph, J. 2013. "China Seeks Soft Power Influence With CCTV America - China Digital Times (CDT)." China Digital Times (CDT) [Online] Available at http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/04/china-seeks-soft-power-influence-with-cctv-america/ [accessed June 20, 2013]. Seib, P. M. 2008. The Al Jazeera effect: how the new global media are reshaping world politics. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books. Stanford, D. 2008."Egypt faces new media censorship - Focus - Al Jazeera English." Al Jazeera. [Online] Available at http://www.aljazeera.com/focus/2008/08/20088791952617974.html [accessed June 20, 2013]. Sun, W. and Chio, J. 2012. Mapping media in China: region, province, locality. London: Routledge. Voltmer, K. 2006.Mass media and political communication in new democracies. London: Routledge. Read More