the status of editors had been reduced while media owners were well known and had access to the corridors of power.
Mano Wikramanayake, Group Director of MTV- Sri Lanka, moderated the second session. He said abuses of power went unchallenged in many poor countries and the media had a role to play in working for change.
Olya Booyar, President of IAWRT, stressed the im- portance of gender main- streaming and multicultur- alism in broadcasting.
She said the existence of a public service broadcast- er did not guarantee good governance. However, commercial broadcasters could perform a useful public service function if they were so inclined.
Niken Widiastuti, President Director of RRI-Indonesia, said that modernisation unaccompanied by good governance would cause corruption, which would lead to poverty and suf- fering. She described how RRI, Indonesia’s public radio broadcaster, was fighting corruption and working directly with the country’s anti-corruption authorities.
G Jayalal, Additional Director General of AIR- India, said good govern- ance exists when citizens are valued and their needs are taken seriously. Good governance requires an independent, free and vi- gorous media, which gives a voice to the voiceless.
Kalinga Seneviratne, Head of Research and Capacity Building at AMIC-
From left: Niken Widiastuti of RRI-Indonesia, Mano Wikramanayake of MTV-Sri Lanka, Olya Booyar of IAWRT and G Jayalal of AIR-India.
whether people could trust all the information avai- lable to them. News was often unfiltered by a me- diator before reaching its audience.
Anothai Udomslip of Thai PBS and Kalinga Seneviratne of AMIC-Singapore.
Singapore, said the fourth estate had been taken over by big business, which was more powerful than governments.
He said a fifth estate was needed to serve as a watchdog over the fourth estate, which was now exploiting the people by promoting lifestyles that were exploitative of both people and the environment.
Anothai Udomsilp, Director of the Academic Institute of Thai PBS, described the role Thai PBS plays in public service broadcasting, and in focusing on such issues as corruption and transparency. Using the current Thai floods as an example, he said people needed to know what went wrong in the first place, who was responsible and how long the crisis would
last. These were issues broadcasters needed to investigate.
Hilmy Ahamed, CEO of YATV-Sri Lanka, said pri- vately-owned broadcasting organisations could cer- tainly provide public ser- vice broadcasting.
Ms Wilson of the CBA described local radio as the roots of public service broadcasting. She expressed disappointment that the BBC planned to cut back on local radio because of costs.
Mr Ahamed moderated the third session.
The first speaker, Sundeep Muppidi, Secretary Gene- ral of AMIC-Singapore, said journalism’s hege- mony as gatekeeper was being threatened by the rise of new media. The biggest problem was
Dagmar Skopalik, Head of International Relations at ZDF-Germany, said ZDF, as Germany’s national public service broadcaster, had embraced social me- dia and was now available live and on demand, on big and small screens. A broadcaster had to be where the people were, and reach out to young viewers.
Savyasaachi Jain, Consu- ltant, IntegriTV, said the media had a crucial intermediary role to play in elections. However, the jury was still out on whether it influenced the results.
He said there were legiti- mate concerns about the behaviour of the media. Ordinary citizens expected the mainstream media to represent them, and when it did not, they turned to the social media.
Mr Wikramanayake said even private broadcasters need to provide public service
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