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111. CCTV's International Expansion Expansion: China's Grand Strategy for Media

Author:
Anne Nelson
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
China Central Television has come a long ways since its founding as a domestic party propaganda outlet in 1958. The domestic service has been supplemented by an international service, boasting three major global offices in Beijing, Washington, and Nairobi, and more than 70 additional international bureaus. The quality of CCTV’s journalism depends on both the region in which it’s produced, and the subject matter’s sensitivity in Beijing. On one hand, CCTV produces sophisticated long-form reports on complex international issues such as climate change; at the same time, its reporting on the Chinese Communist Party echoes the party line. CCTV’s biggest impact may be in regions where China is directing its international investments. The Nairobi operations complement extensive investments in African infrastructure, many of them in communications; China is also pursuing critical investment in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Media, Journalism, and Propaganda
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Latin America, and Southeast Asia

112. The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship: How The Communist Party's Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets Around the World

Author:
Sarah Cook
Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship: How the Communist Party’s Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets Around the World provides a survey of this phenomenon and its recent evolution as it pertains to the news media sector, though similar dynamics also affect the film, literature, and performing arts industries. Specifically, this report focuses on six types of media outlets based outside mainland China that together reach news consumers in dozens of countries: major international media; local outlets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; mainstream media in Hong Kong and Taiwan; exile Chinese outlets providing uncensored news to people in China; and media serving Chinese diaspora communities around the world.
Topic:
Media, Journalism, and Censorship
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Global Focus

113. Policy Suggestions For Free and Independent Media in Turkey

Author:
Ceren Sözeri and Dilek Kurban
Publication Date:
03-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
Research carried out in Turkey in the frame of the MEDIADEM project, which seeks to identify the policy processes, tools and instruments that can best support media freedom and independence in the country, showed that the media in Turkey has always been in a relationship of interdependence with political power. The state has maintained a tight grip over the press through political pressure and has successfully created a proponent media through practices of political favouritism and financial nepotism. The fear of state oppression, the absence of a culture of independent journalism and economic dependence on state support caused the media to align itself with political power, even after the end of single party rule and transition to multi-party democracy.
Topic:
History, Democracy, Media, and Journalism
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

114. Caught in the Wheels of Power: The Political, Legal and Economic Constraints on Independent Media and Freedom

Author:
Ceren Sözeri and Dilek Kurban
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
Media policy in Turkey has shaped the media-state relationship since the establishment of the first newspaper in the late Ottoman period. While regulations were often employed as an effective disciplinary tool against the press in processes of state formation and modernization, opponent journalists have constantly been suppressed by state and non-state actors who claimed to act in the name of ‘state interests.’ The lack of a strong pro-democracy social movement; the ideological conservatism of the judiciary; the institutional weakness of the parliament; and the lack of democracy within political parties render the government – and future governments – too powerful vis-à-vis the society and the media. On a positive note, however, there is a growing awareness on the need for social monitoring of the media. In the absence of a widely accepted and established self-regulatory framework, various nongovernmental organizations and activist groups started to watch the media in order to expand the culture of diversity and to reduce discrimination, racism and hate speech.
Topic:
Democracy, Media, Freedom of Expression, Journalism, and Judiciary
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

115. The Ecuador Situation: The Relationship between the Government and the Media

Author:
Camilla Lanusse
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
Abstract:
Long-standing tensions between the government of Ecuador and the private press culiminated in February with a Supreme Court decision, international outrage, and a presidential pardon. Arguing that the media have long acted as a powerful private interest in Ecuador, President Correa in recent months filed and won several lawsuits for criminal defamation against news media and individual reporters, and proposed legislation affecting coverage of political campaigns. The controversy surrounding these events contributed to the debate over freedom of expression and the press in Ecuador, as well as Independence of the judicial system.
Topic:
Development, Government, Media, and Judiciary
Political Geography:
Central America and Ecuador

116. Case Study Report: Does Media Policy Promote Media Freedom and Independence? The Case of Turkey

Author:
Ceren Sözeri and Dilek Kurban
Publication Date:
12-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
Media policy in Turkey has shaped the media-state relationship since the establishment of the first newspaper in the late Ottoman period. While regulations were often employed as an effective disciplinary tool against the press in processes of state formation and modernization, opponent journalists have constantly been suppressed by state and non-state actors who claimed to act in the name of ‘state interests’. The coup d’état in 1980 and the concomitant economic liberalisation changed the ownership structure of the media sector with the entry of new investors. Following the abolishment of state monopoly on broadcasting in the 1990s, big conglomerates expanding through vertical and horizontal mergers have dominated all fields of the media. The high concentrated market structure in the media was made possible due to the inadequacy of legal barriers to crossmergers, as well as the lack of measures that would prevent media conglomerates from participating in public tenders in other sectors of the economy. The shortcomings of the regulatory framework to promote press freedom and diversity in the media has encouraged big corporations to regard themselves as legitimate political actors that can bargain with the government. Media ownership was restructured following the economic crisis in 2001. Big media groups, which had investments in the financial and banking sectors, were particularly affected by the crisis; some being completely wiped out of the market, while others were seized by the state. Shortly after the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi- AK Parti) came to power in 2002, the mainstream media was reconfigured ideologically as either ‘opponent’ or ‘proponent’ to the government. Notwithstanding the limited positive effects of the EU accession process on media freedom, there are dozens of ECtHR judgments regarding freedom of expression and freedom of the press waiting to be executed by the Turkish state. Journalists who are powerless vis-à-vis the owners and political power are particularly affected by the political polarisation in the media. The structural obstacles to unionization and the lack of solidarity in the profession lead to labour exploitation, low quality content and violations of media ethics. The lack of a strong pro-democracy social movement; the ideological conservatism of the judiciary; the institutional weakness of the parliament; and the lack of democracy within political parties render the government – and future governments – too powerful vis-à-vis the society and the media. On a positive note, however, there is a growing awareness on the need for social monitoring of the media. In the absence of a widely accepted and established selfregulatory framework, various non-governmental organizations and activist groups started to watch the media in order to expand the culture of diversity and to reduce discrimination, racism and hate speech. MEDIADEM is a European research project which seeks to understand and explain the factors that promote or conversely prevent the development of policies supporting free and independent media.
Topic:
Democracy, Media, Freedom of Expression, and Journalism
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and European Union