GENERAL ASSEMBLY
ABU / FES Seminar
State of media freedom ‘still sombre’ worldwide
a seminar in New Delhi heard.
T
The gloomy assessment came from the Director General of Deutsche Welle, Erik Bettermann, in a keynote address to the ABU/FES Seminar on 5 November.
“Free and independent media is a significant factor for a functioning democracy,” he said.
“The most important pre- condition for a democratic media system is the po- litical and economic inde- pendence of the media and a legal framework to guarantee its independent status.”
Mr Bettermann said that even in the European Union, the press freedom situation was deteriorating.
He quoted Reporters Without Borders as saying the defence of media
12 ABU News
freedom continued to be a battle – a battle of vigilance in the democracies of old Europe and a battle against oppression and injustice in the totalitarian regimes still scattered across the globe.
Held alongside the ABU’s annual meetings, the day- long seminar on ‘Media and Good Governance’ was organised by the ABU and the Friedrich Ebert Siftung of Germany. It brought together senior broadcasters from across the region.
Usha Bhasin, Additional Director General of DDI- India, moderated the first
session. She said only a public broadcaster could truly make people aware of good governance, whether or not the private media was free.
Sally-Ann Wilson, Secre- tary General of the Com- monwealth Broadcasting Association, asked broad- casters to think of what they shared rather than focus on their differences.
She said broadcasters needed to freshen up their act and embrace innovation at a time when audiences could no longer be captured and harnessed to the box.
he realities of media freedom worldwide remain sombre,
Sally-Ann Wilson of the
Commonwealth Broadcasting Association
Lem van Eupen, Deputy Director of RNW-Nether- lands, raised the issue of the transparency and ac- countability of the media itself. The concentration of media ownership made it difficult to hear plurality, she said.
Venkat Iyer of the Univer- sity of Ulster, looked at legal issues and called for a move away from heavy- handed regulation of the media. Instead censoring media outlets which trans- gressed, a lighter touch would allow for a greater diversity of views. He said a free and impartial judi- ciary was essential for media freedom.
Responding to the speakers, Abdul Rahman Panjshiri of RTA- Afghanistan said local training was needed to raise the standard of journalism. Reporters must also be paid a fair salary, he said.
Other participants bemoaned the fact that
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