weekly 11/11/15 (marxist)

Media for development: does good journalism promote transparency?

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/jun/13/media-for-development-transparency

 former WorldBank president, James Wolfensohn, who said: "A free press is not a luxury. A free press is at the absolute core of equitable development, because if you cannot enfranchise poor people, if they do not have a right to expression, if there is no searchlight on corruption and inequitable practices, you cannot build the public consensus needed to bring about change."

The trouble is, they are not. The media have multiple, overlapping roles which are fundamentally shaped by local contexts. Pretending that they don't leads to bad project design and policy making. It also fuels the mistaken belief that accessto technology alone is enough to solve problems.

Such misleading stories about the inevitably positive role of technology are not limited to the subject of press freedom. Those concerned with behaviour change communication also tell exciting tales about the benefits of mobile phones, for example, in promoting flood safety or educating young mothers. Yet disseminating information through the media will only change behaviours in very specific circumstances – when the right people, can access the right information, at the right time, understand it, trust it and be able to act upon it. It's no use telling people to boil their drinking water, for example, if they don't have the means to boil it

This article is from  Marxist view which explores the importance of a free press and it essential role for a democratic society. However it also points out that most people are deluded to the illusion of such freedom, despite having emerging technologies and digital development. 

A freedom of information tipping-point

Anas Qtiesh

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/23/egypt-syria

president Mubarak gave the orders to shut off off the internet in the country completely. 
Quickly, al-Jazeera became one of the last remaining reliable sources of information. Eventually, though, its broadcast was cut on Nilesat, its Cairo bureau closed, and its journalists repeatedlythreatened and harassed.

operating out of a basicprinciple: the less people that know about what you're doing, the more likely you'll get away with it. Fortunately, today, that is simply not possible. With the omnipresence of telecoms, no matter how hard governments try to block information from leaking, the people will always be a step ahead, finding creative ways to get their messages, photos, videos, tweets and Facebook updates out to the world. Indeed, their collective voice cannot be blocked.