Internet Changes Everything

Independence of the news

The Government is considering break up of the BBC.

This is a clear example of misuse of government power. Independence of the news media is critical for a multitude of reasons. These reasons are all tied to freedom of speech, and a free society.

Part of the draft paper released, talks about "wider Ofcom enforcement role". (Ofcom is a Government controlled body, set up under the latest Communications Act as a single regulator of the entire broadcasting and communications industry). Its known that Ofcom is very close to the government, so de facto editorial control is moved to the government.

In this day of internet news, and the ability for consumers to take in all the news as they desire, and, assemble their own view of the world, this would effectively take the BBC out of the picture. Worse, it would remain in the picture, and consumers would get a diluted, and non objective view of the news. Research (exampe1) & (example2), shows the movement of reliance on newspapers, and especially TV towards reliance on internet news. Internet news is important and becoming more trusted than other news sources. Anything which brings into question the nature of the underlying news, brings into question, that which consumers are counting upon.

On the world scale, we have BBC, CNN, FOX and SKY as world scale broadcasters, backed up by reporting from AP, Reuters, and AFP. CNN might be US biased, but they take pretty good shorts at Republicans and Democrats alike.

The tie to free society becomes even more important with internet news. We just have to look at Communist Russia (pre '89 - no comment on today) and North Korea (today) for [extreme] examples of how media is a critical means for them to control and manipulate how people think, and what they know. If western countries all over the world are relying upon internet for news, and we know which sites they count on, then independence of thought, and journalism is critical. If they make occasional mistakes, and the governments' don't like it, that should be just part of the process.

That the BBC screwed up during the Hutton/ Gilligan incident on Iraq WMD is not in question. But the New York Times similarly and possibly more seriously screwed up on their war reporting during the war too.

This doesn't mean we have lost the need for independent thought and new reporting. In this day of "world news" accessible anywhere, independence of the media is all the more important.

February 15, 2004 at 11:08 AM in @ My Views @ | Permalink | TrackBack (7) | Top of page | Blog Home