The Hindu : `Media becoming propaganda vehicle for corporates'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

National

National

`Media becoming propaganda vehicle for corporates'

By Dionne Bunsha

Nikhil Wagle, Editor of Mahanagar (left), and N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, at a discussion on `Media, Culture and Knowledge,' at the World Social Forum in Mumbai on Sunday. — Photo: Vivek Bendre

MUMBAI, JAN. 18. Does a global media actually mean less information? Has globalisation homogenised culture? The ways in which globalisation has affected peoples' access to information and shaped cultural trends were issues of concern for panellists at the World Social Forum's `Media, Culture and Knowledge' discussion today.

Warning of the impending danger of media monopolies, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, said, "In the near future, media analysts predict that only 5 to 10 players will dominate the media scene." While chairing the session, he said, "In India, we still have a lot of diversity in the media. But tendencies of concentration and monopoly are emerging, which threaten progressive movements."

Indian journalism was born with freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi and Babasaheb Ambedkar. "But today, the soul of Indian journalism has gone," said Nikhil Wagle, Editor of Mahanagar, a Mumbai-based Marathi afternoon newspaper. "The media has become a propaganda vehicle for big companies," he said. "But readers support can reduce the media's dependence on commercial funding."

The corporatisation of media endangered people's right to information, explained Bernard Cassen, director-general of Le Monde Diplomatique publications in France. "The media has a responsibility not only to shareholders, but also to society," he said. "It acts on behalf of economic interests, exalting free enterprise. But that cannot be at the risk of the right to information. It cannot be used to propagate lies." To counter the power of monopoly media, he has founded Media Watch, an international body of media observers who critique media content and make people aware of media manipulation.

Bridging the digital divide is also essential to ensure the right to information. Richard Stallman, a free software activist from the United States, said that free software meant the right to run software, change it, share it or publish an improved version.

He advocated the abolition of all patents and copyrights. "These laws are a restriction on sharing. Copyrights laws were made during the industrial age. Today's technology has made them redundant," he said.

Corporate control of the media had also homogenised ideas across the world, said Fernando Martinez Heredia, an author from Cuba.

"A cultural war is being waged. There is transnational domination over people's minds and feelings," he said.

Mr. Heredia explained how Cuba, despite being a small country, had resisted imperial domination. "Creating a culture of resistance through the media and culture is imperative. We must liberate language and thinking from the walls that have confined them."

In Africa, the powerful media have reflected a racist image of the continent. "We refuse to accept ourselves. We are trying to be like our oppressors. Cultural differences are not accepted by dominant groups," said Aminata Traore, Mali's former Minister of Culture.

"Our elites are being paid to implement racist free market policies. Modern knowledge cannot free us. We will be rich and free only by relying on our own culture. Another Africa is imperative," she said.

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