How Corporate and Political Interest Corrupt Global Media - Essay Example

?How corporate and political interest corrupt global media Introduction The development of democratic s around the world is characterized by the existence of pillars, which are play fundamental role in highlighting the basic progress in governance. Media industries have developed a fundamental role in the democratic setup and are most commonly referred to as the fourth pillar of democracy. This is because media is fundamental in monitoring and investigation in order to keep the citizens and other stakeholders in government informed. As fourth pillar in the democratic principles and governance of a country, it helps in the identification of outlining corrupt acts within the government (Darch and Underwood, 2010). Despite this critical role, media itself as an institution is not immune to infiltration by corrupt politicians and corporate leaders who buy their names into the news. Despite lack of proper research into the area of media corruption and complacency in highlighting certain news aspects, media corruption is a reality. Powerful politicians and corporate leaders influence the nature of the reports made by the journalist for their own personal good and interest. Such practices go against the ethical protocols for media practitioners, as the role of the media is to make available to the public essential news items without interfering with the originality of the content to favor those involved (Besley & Prat, 2006). The evaluation of extent to which corporate and political interest have infiltrated the media is essential in the discussion of corruption in the media industry. In this paper, the role of political leaders and corporate managers in abetting corruption and malice in the media industry will be discussed. The paper will also provide the impacts of having a compromised media in today’s democratic situation by analysing the need for uncensored and biased news. Role of media in fighting corruption As a major pillar in the building of democratic institution in a country, the fourth estate has a major mandate to the people and to the globe in general. This makes it essential for the media to ensure it upholds accountability and transparency at all times when developing and relaying news item to the public. For the media fraternity to accomplish their role without any interference, it must be free from any form of control from either the government, political interest or even corporate players (Nogara, 2009). Control of corruption and playing the role of corruption watchdog requires a media fraternity that is plural, enjoys media freedom and has advanced ways of reporting corrupt deals before they actually cost the taxpayer’s money. Through the development of a free press, the fight against corruption gains momentum as the public is factually informed of any corruption related deals in depth. This occurs through the media’s role of creating awareness in the public and increasing the citizen’s access to information on corruption (Spence, 2008). By running a new story on corrupt deals or practices within any arm of government or even in the private sector, the fourth estate creates a room for beginning of investigation. This occurs because of public outcry and complaints following a report highlighting the vices being undertaken within a specific department. Through the publication of such stories, the media plays a critical role of mobilizing the public and generating pressure for reforms aimed at eliminating the loopholes being exploited by the corrupt. Apart from direct reporting after these events have occurred, media has a role in ensuring that all investigations aimed at uncovering corrupt deals are well covered and the public is well informed of the findings. Providing such information to the public through critical reporting provides the public with a plat form to air their concerns and demand for action against the perpetrators. Factors affecting integrity of media The significant part of the fourth estate as the public eye can compromised through interference and infiltration of the media fraternity by corporate business interest. The government has several ways of developing a platform to allow media infiltration by politicians and powerful corporate leaders with an aim of making them gullible and exposed to manipulation and corrupt practices (Besley & Prat, 2006). One of the most used weapons against media houses across the world is the enactment of oppressive legislations that severely hampers the free state of freedom to get information. Other restrictions, which have been used by the legislature and the government against media houses, include the weakening of civil society groups, which act as public watchdogs in a democratic setting. Other systems reduce the overall media literacy through the development of poor training programs and curriculum thus affecting the overall professional standards of the media practitioners. Media players in developing nations are faced with a number of challenges, which makes them an easy target for politicians and powerful corporate leaders. These media houses and individuals lack enough tools to enhance their trade, have limited financial resources and operate in undemocratic political situations (Nogara, 2009). This increases the presence of corruption in the media due to the need for both the protagonist and the antagonist in this situation to remain relevant and in business. According transparency international global corruption barometer, the extent of media corruption in the developing countries is a pointer of the rough environment that these media practitioners are exposed to, thus making them an easier target by corrupt individuals. Most developing countries like Yemen, Pakistan, Bolivia and major African countries do not regard media freedom and watchdog role as essential in the democratization of its institutions and has thus infiltrated the media houses. The development of corruption in the media is related to a country’s own legal framework which when well developed in a fair and transparent manner protects the media from oppressive power of the government. Developing countries have a higher corruption index in the media due to the low democratization, which interferes with the development of better legal frameworks. Within the united nation universal declaration of human rights, the development of a free media in a democratic country can only be achieved when the freedom of speech is anchored in the constitution. This provides protection to the journalist against any oppressive actions by the government should they lay part in revealing damning corruption within the government departments. The development of special restrictions aimed at restricting the freedom of speech is the first process that abets the development and growth of corruption within the media industry. Most countries have developed penal codes, which creates room for strict punitive measures against the media. In Jordan for example, any information whether factual or otherwise that can interfere with the country’s unity, create division in the masses and affect negatively on the state’s image and reputation attracts a prison sentence for breach of the constitution. This prevents journalist and media players from being at the forefront of highlighting corruption practices in the government or event state owned corporations. Other countries have laws that protect government officials from nay-direct criticism by the media thus making it impossible to run revealing stories against such individuals (Berger, 2007). One of the tools used by corrupt politicians and government officials to control the media and increase corruption within is the media registration and licensing process. All media houses in a country must be registered and given the green light to operate by the government department concerned before actual operations can begin. Politicians and other government officials have used this process to ensure that they advance their self-interest by invoking different clauses, which can lead to the closure of the media houses. Such moves and privileges enjoyed by politicians and government officials against media house has caused widespread corruption as most media owners pay large sum of money as bribe to have their businesses registered. Journalists and practitioners are also required by law to register before they can actually begin operations in almost all countries across the world. In developing countries, journalist training may not be adequate to enable them acquire essential investigative skills thus making them prone to corruption. Most journalists thus bribe their way into practice, an act that reduces their personal influence and ability to help reveal corruption in the government and beyond. Due to restrictions imposed by government, most journalists are issued with press cards to enable them access government facilities and functions at any given time. As the number journalists and media houses increases, the number of press cards issued by the government or businesses during important functions is highly limited. This provides room for the perpetuation of corruption in the media as most journalist ’buy’ their way into such function which limits their ability to provide an objective report to the public (Berger, 2007). Apart from journalist and media house accreditation by the government, the media ownership structure also affects the ability of the label to remain immune to corrupt infiltration by the government and private business owners. Private media is highly influenced by business interest and this affects their ability to address corruption related issues in their reporting effectively. In most developing countries, private ownership of media houses is concentrated in the hands of few wealthy and connected individuals. Such people have interest in both the private and public sector and this hampers the process of free media and expression (Callamard, 2010). The ability of such media houses to reveal corruption and other heinous acts committed by the government and other businesses is reduced significantly due to conflict of interest among the owners. As businesses that aim at maximizing profits and increasing dominance in highly controlled and competitive market, private journalist working in private firms work to ensure that they land expensive advertisement contracts. Such contracts are most of the time awarded without following due process as the business owners are more than willing to part with some part of the money to win contracts. Due to the competition, professional ethic and conduct of the journalists is highly affected as they strive to survive and remain relevant in the field. Most journalists would rather sell away damning news items to the politicians or even business people who are willing to pay a lot of money to prevent such information from reaching the public. This demonstrates the impacts of developing private media businesses into normal business models where the fittest and the smartest survive while the others are thrown out of business (Brunetti and Weder, 2003). Forms of corruption in the media Corruption takes different forms and this is majorly influenced by the nature of the industry and the sectors of the economy that it affects significantly. Media and the fourth estate n general affect almost all aspects of life, the economy and the democratic process thus making it a significant pillar in the existence of a country. Due to the magnitude of its influence in a given country, media corruption takes a number of forms depending on the information that need to be concealed or one that should be released to the public (Center for International Media Assistance, 2010). One of the prevalent forms of corruption in the media is the acceptance of bribes and other incentives aimed at changing the due process of reporting and investigative journalism. Private media houses, news editors and even journalist accept bribes in order to change the nature of a story or even reduce its incriminating effect on an individual’s character. While accepting of bribes from willing party is common practice, some media houses and journalist have perfected their corrupt ways and practice advanced extortion in order to enable them edit certain kind of information. It is common practice across the world to have unethical media practitioners to approach individuals mentioned in a given report in order to extort money from them. Such actions are always followed by unethical editing of the original information thus compromising the content of the information delivered to the public. Practices of taking bribes to generate false stories or even cover up information that is essential to the public severely affects the impartiality of the media and undermines its overall integrity and image before the public (Besley & Prat, 2006). As a company that seeks to maximize its profits, private media houses strive to win lucrative advertisement tenders from both the government and the private sector. The desire to improve the business performance can used by both politicians other corporate players to manipulate the impartiality and ability of the media to engage in constructive reporting. In developing countries where journalists are paid much lower salaries, most of them engage in advertisement brokerage to earn an extra coin which creates room for manipulation of the media (Callamard, 2010). By placing an advertisement in a particular media house, politicians gain advantage that enables them to control the nature of information relayed to the public by such media houses. These results into the development of pseudo news releasing which focuses on the client’s personality in a much-fabricated manner aimed at improving the rating of the politician in question. One of the widely used corruption tricks in media is the development of concealed advertisement, commonly known as the ‘jeansa’ in Ukraine. Through this trick, media houses engage in advertisement practices by packaging the product to be advertised into a news item before engaging the public in exaggerated discussion aimed at influencing their opinions towards them. Politicians and political parties have advanced this form of corruption during election as was highlighted in the 2007 parliamentary elections in the United States (Brunetti and Weder, 2003). The advancement of nepotism in state owned or private media houses is another form of corruption highly prevalent in media houses across the world. However, this is more dominant in developing nations where the tribe or party seen to work against the government is mistreated and its members fired from the media houses. This is usually done in anticipation of planned cover up of government inefficiencies should they occur at any given point in the country (Fardigh, Andersson and Oscarsson, 2011). The misuse of office to advance the evil practice of nepotism and favouritism is a common form of corruption in the media that affects the credibility of news and the overall trust of the public. Discriminative media capture and attention is a form of corruption common in most countries especially in the developing world during elections. These media houses are paid and bribed by political parties and politicians to advanced biased reporting and coverage to ensure that the opponents are blacklisted and given unbalanced media attention. Political control of the media coverage and operation schemes of the media houses affects the overall independence of the media houses thus lowering the integrity of the information released to the public (Besley & Prat, 2006). Addressing corruption in the media The media is the only available avenue through which the public can have access to information regarding governance, distribution of resources and job opportunities. This makes it an important pillar in the development and advancement of democratic principles in any country, developing or developed. There is thus need for the identification of more pragmatic methods of addressing the prevailing corruption in the media to enable this important element of a country’s existence to remain without external influence. One of the available approaches that can be used to eliminate global media corruption is the development of better and stronger legal framework that protects the media houses and journalists from interference by government and political interest. The ownership structure of private media houses and the registration and licensing process should also be improved to eliminate the current loopholes abused by corrupt government officials (Center for International Media Assistance, 2010). This will create a leveled field for media practitioners to inform the public without due influence from others with political and business interests. An informed public is one of the tenets of democracy and this can only be achieved through empowering the media to eliminate the vice of corruption and encourage objective reporting and advertising. The formation of international journalism associations and bodies will also help strengthen the entire media fraternity and improve its overall ability to work without duress as currently present in most countries. Ethics and professional training standards should also be developed to ensure that the journalist have advanced training that enable them to practice without intimidation and influence from other quarters (Ristow, 2010). References Berger, G 2007, Media Legislation in Africa: A Comparative Legal Survey, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Queensland: UNESCO. Besley, T and Prat, A. 2006, “Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government accountability”, American Economic Review, 96(3): 720-736. Brunetti, A. and Weder, B. 2003, “A Free Press is bad News for Corruption”. Journal of Public Economics, 87: 1801–1824. Callamard, A 2010, “Accountability, Transparency, and Freedom of Expression in Africa” Social Research, 77, no.4. Center for International Media Assistance. 2010, Registering Reporters: How Licensing of Journalists Threatens Independent News Media. Washington, D.C: CIMA. Darch, C., and Underwood, P. 2010, “Struggles for Freedom of Information in Africa”, In Freedom of Information and the Developing World: The Citizen, the State and Models of Openness, Oxford: Chandos Publishing. Fardigh, M., Andersson, E., and Oscarsson, H 2011, Reexamining the Relationship Between Press Freedom and Corruption. University of Gothenburg: Department of Political Science Nogara, M. 2009. “Role of media in curbing corruption: the case of Uganda under President Yoweri K. Museveni during the ‘no-party’ system.” DESA Working Paper Series no. 72. Ristow, B., 2010. Cash for Coverage: Bribery of Journalists around the World. Washington, D.C: CIMA. Spence, H., 2008. “Corruption in the Media”. International Journal of Applied Philosophy 22 no.1: 231-241. Read More