Media Imperialism: A Threat
to Right to Information
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Media imperialism is a a phenomenon which provokes serious thought in those who are concerned about media freedom for the sake of democracy, civil liberty and protection of fundamental rights for all around the globe in consonance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Media being a capital- intensive industry to-day, the tycoons are in control of media houses worldwide. They invest to earn whooping profit, and are on the run to invade new territories to spread their networks thus to increase profit and clout. When profit counts, public interest tends to take the back seat. In the process, media freedom guaranteed in the constitutions of the democratic countries, in effect, becomes the freedom of media mughals. They are the media gatekeepers and, their interests, outlook and point of view influence the selection and presentation of news which the innocent consumers credulously accept. This is how they fall in line with the policy of the tycoons, and unwittingly become susceptible to the danger of being unable to be free thinkers.Vox populi loses originality and turns out to be the manipulated public opinion . In such a situation democracy ceases to be participatory in essence.
Back in 1980 UNESCO recognized the problem of imbalance in the flow of information between the developed and the developing worlds in the McBride report. During 1970s the Non-aligned countries identified the problem of this imbalance and strove for remedies. The developed world could not swallow the report adopted by UNESCO. With the passage of time the imbalance has increased.Globalization which encourages free market economy has paved the way for invasions of the media tycoons which the small and medium media houses cannot withstand.
The global tycoons operate in two ways. They annex new territories of operation or partner with strong local players. Those local players use their financial clout to cow down the small and medium houses and in course of time gobble them up. Thus at the local or country level also a sort of media imperialism is increasingly at work. This belies or, at least, distorts the concept of media being public fora to facilitate the right of people to unburnished and uncolored information.
