‘Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”
While many might find this claim extremely cynical and supposedly contradicted by the realities of living in ostensibly democratic societies, Turkey’s controversial leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has once again demonstrated that even his country’s newspapers will pay a costly price for questioning his rule.
Angered by the constant criticism of his policies by Turkey’s largest circulation newspaper, Zaman, Erdogan has had that newspaper seized by authorities, claiming Zaman was promoting instability and abetting terrorists.
In reality, Erdogan made his move to silence one of the few voices within Turkey still actively engaged in trying to inform the Turkish public of the president’s never-ending actions to undermine the country’s democratic and secular system.
Most members of the European Union and NATO muted their criticism of the action against the newspaper or ignored Erdogan’s attack against freedom of the press.
Interestingly, the paucity of criticism comes at a time when concerns are growing about the undermining of democratic practices — including commitment to freedom of the press — in several EU countries, including non-EU states in nearby regions.
One individual particularly concerned about threats against media freedom in Europe has been Dunja Mijatovic of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
In a recent conversation with an EU representative, Mijatovic expressed serious concern over the state of media freedom in certain areas of Europe, as well as in neighbouring states such as Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.
According to Mijatovic, media ownership by certain groups is undermining press freedom. In Russia, Ukraine and the western Balkans, the media have become political tools for elites and oligarchs.
“Civil society in Russia has been severely weakened,” she said. “The independent media are disappearing.”
In her view, governments in Hungary and now Poland have “turned on the media” and the situation in the western Balkans is worrisome for those attempting to support democratic values.
Understandably, Canadians far removed from Europe might regard such problems as having little importance for them, living as they do in an open society.
However, populations everywhere, including in democracies such as Canada, rely on the media to keep them informed of what is happening in their own societies and countries, as well as elsewhere around the world.
If the information received in the media is truly intended to be accurate and relatively unbiased, they then have the ability to adopt what they consider to be sound and sensible views when considering their own opinions and actions.
However, if, as is the case in many societies, the information received isn’t truly objective and impartial but, rather, biased and intended to influence behaviour that serves the purposes of others, they unwillingly become manipulated by the wishes and goals of others, not necessarily being in their own best interests.
The recent Canadian election provided a timely example of why people in democratic societies must be ever vigilant in understanding how the press can be utilized to advance objectives that serve the interests of only certain groups within society.
In this case, all the newspapers of Canada’s largest newspaper chain, Postmedia, were ordered to publish editorials urging voters to re-elect the Conservative party of prime minister Stephen Harper.
That resulted in the editors of the opinion pages of both the flagship National Post and the Ottawa Citizen questioning such a blanket order. The editorial-page editor of the National Post was denied the right to write a dissenting opinion and resigned from the position.
Editorial writers at the Citizen left their jobs a month later.
In the final analysis, the media have considerable say in influencing how members of any society perceive the world around themselves and how they should relate to those who claim to be their leaders.
And those seeking to advance their own personal power and interests within any society always seek ways to control the media in one way or another.
It’s a reality not to be ignored, even in democracies like Canada.
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator who regularly writes on human-rights issues.
