(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ press release: Media Release January 11th 2000 New Media Giant: Dangers to Democracy In Rich-Poor Divide and Threats to Editorial Independence Says IFJ The International Federation of Journalists, the world’s largest organisation of journalists, today responded to the merger of Time Warner, the biggest media and entertainment company […]
(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ press release:
Media Release January 11th 2000
New Media Giant: Dangers to Democracy In Rich-Poor Divide and Threats to Editorial Independence Says IFJ
The International Federation of Journalists, the world’s largest organisation of journalists, today responded to the merger of Time Warner, the biggest media and entertainment company world-wide, and America Online, the Internet’s largest service provider, with a warning that the move could threaten democratic values and freedom of expression unless action is taken to protect editorial independence from corporate influence.
“This merger may redefine the worlds of entertainment, communication and commerce,” said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White, “but it may also threaten democracy, plurality and quality in media.
“We are now seeing the dominance of a handful of companies controlling information and how that information reaches people,” said White. “Unless action is taken to ensure journalistic independence we face a dangerous threat to media diversity.”
The IFJ says that control of information content and ownership of information delivery systems should be subject to separate regulation. “Otherwise we will have corporate gatekeepers to the flow of information who will define content to suit their market strategies,” said White.
The IFJ claims that media companies are slashing editorial budgets and cutting social standards to meet corporate financial targets in the face of restructuring of the global media economy. “Everywhere the social fabric of journalism is under attack. Jobs are being downgraded and staff are under commercial pressures that influence their day-to-day work. The stability and independence of media are threatened in the process.”
A recent global survey carried out by the IFJ for the International Labour Organisation confirms that although journalism is expanding worldwide, many of the new jobs are in the vulnerable freelance sector. “Journalists and other media staff are subject to greater exploitation at the hands of aggressive and penny-pinching employers,” says the IFJ.
The IFJ also raised concern that the new merger signals a widening of the gulf between the information rich and the information poor around the world. The IFJ said: “We now have a company that can deliver CNN to more than a billion people, yet almost half the world’s population still have no access to a telephone. The information gap between rich and poor is already intolerable and now may be made much worse with a greater concentration of technology and information resources in rich, northern countries.”
The IFJ represents more than 450,000 journalists in 130 unions and associations in 103 countries.
