FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE, PLURALITY AND DIVERSITY

Freedom of information and expression underpin media and information literacy. In this context, the use of the related term freedom of information refers to access to public information. ‘Information is key to our understanding of the world around us, our ability to find a meaningful role in it, and our capacity to take advantage of the resources available to us. When information is concentrated in the hands of a few or only in the hands of elites, the public’s ability both to make decisions and to assess the decisions is greatly reduced. An ethical and pluralistic media can ensure transparency, accountability and the rule of law.’ (UNESCO Freedom of Expression Tool Kit) Independent media draw their power from reporting responsibly on the communities they serve.

—      FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE PRESS

Freedom of expression is the freedom to express and exchange views and opinions without fear of threats or punitive action. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right. The right to freedom of expression protects not only freedom of speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. Freedom of the press is a necessary underpinning of this right as it enables free expression to be public and shared, and is thus essential to the building and supporting of communities and civil society.

Freedom of expression can promote a true sense of ownership within society by allowing ordinary individuals to examine and express different thoughts and opinions. Freedom of expression is an integral part of civic responsibility, and essential for critical thinking. Restrictions to freedom of expression are allowed only when such restrictions are necessary to protect the freedoms of others. Limitations, such as the laws preventing ‘hate speech’, should be narrowly defined to avoid misuse.

Freedom of expression is at the core of human individuality and is one of the essential foundations of a safe and prosperous society.Freedom of expression is a human right and forms Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom of expression covers freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and gives individuals and communities the right to articulate their opinions without fear of retaliation, censorship or punishment.

A democratic society hinges on the people being able to hold informed opinions and express them – both in voting booths and more broadly in their day-to-day lives. It’s important that people are able to ask tough questions of the people in power and find out about decisions which affect them and their fellow citizens.

—      MEDIA PLURALISM

A pluralistic media sector – one that crosses media platforms (print, broadcast, online), locale (national, provincial and community) and political perspectives – helps societies to better reflect on themselves. When media operation is dispersed into many hands, opinions that are not popular can often still find a forum. An effective mix of international, national and local media outlets can give people the means to participate in democratic processes. The widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources contributes to people’s welfare. While separately owned newspapers and broadcasters generally criticize each other’s content, the concentration of media under common ownership is far from offering mutual criticism and could lead to promotional or advocacy media.

Because an open and free media landscape with divergent opinions and ideas is a key aspect in democratic societies, media pluralism is considered highly important with regard to media policy. Given the foundation of pluralism in legislation on media concentration, the theoretical background of media pluralism will be discussed briefly. The Mediamonitor’s model for analyzing media markets is presented in a break-down of the different aspects of pluralism.

However, the concept includes a number of aspects and has been interpreted from different perspectives, and consequently is measured by using many different qualitative and quantitative criteria. In analyzing the concept of pluralism, two perspectives have to be mentioned in this regard: internal and external pluralism.

Internal pluralism reflects how social and political diversity are reflected in media content. That is, the representation of different cultural groups in the media as well as divergent political or ideological opinions and viewpoints.[1] Internal pluralism plays an important role in news and public affairs coverage, and also for public broadcasting and media landscapes dominated by one (monopoly) or two (duopoly) players. Governments can not only stimulate internal pluralism by facilitating public service broadcasting, but also by means of financial support such as grants, press funds, reduced tax rates, etc.

Whereas internal pluralism focuses on media content, external pluralism covers the number of owners, media companies, independent editorial boards, channels, titles or programmes.[2] This type of pluralism is also known as the ‘plurality’ of suppliers. From the perspective of the ‘free marketplace of ideas’, competition between these media content suppliers is considered to be essential in order to ensure a free choice of media content and the availability of a wide variety of opinions and ideas. Policies on media concentration are most concerned with the market power that owners or companies may gain and the subsequent possibility of exerting influence.

In further breaking down media diversity, the Mediamonitor uses a model to analyze the media markets that takes into account all steps of the media production process. Media concentration (the opposite of diversity) can manifest itself in the value chain of content creation,content packaging and/or content delivery (see figure below). The value chain is shown as having three main components: source (supplier), content and consumer (audience).

The most common type of media concentration is horizontal concentration in one link of the production value chain. A second type of media concentration is vertical concentration in two or more links of the media value chain. A third form of media concentration is diagonal concentration (i.e. cross-media ownership), that is a publisher or a broadcaster entering into other media types in addition to its usual operations; for instance a publisher that becomes active in a radio or television station in addition to a daily paper.

Supplier or ownership concentration

In the Mediamonitor, horizontal supplier concentration is assessed on the basis of ownership relationships between media enterprises and their market shares of the respective markets. The degree of horizontal supplier concentration is measured by the Herfindah-Hirschman Index (HHI). Based on the HHI index, the degree of media concentration on a specific market can be labelled as follows:[5]

• Unconcentrated media market: a market that statistically matches a market with more than ten equally large media enterprises;
• Moderately concentrated media market: a market that statistically matches a market with more than five and less than ten equally large media enterprises;
• Highly concentrated media market: a market that statistically matches a market with five or less equally large media enterprises.

Editorial or programming concentration

In addition to supplier concentration, editorial and programming concentration may manifest itself in media markets. This is the case when the editorial staff or programme makers cannot independently produce the content of their titles or channel. The Monitor takes the number of editorially independent titles as an (inverse) indicator of editorial concentration (also to be labelled as ‘title concentration’). The number of independent broadcasting channels is used as the (inverse) indicator of programming concentration (also to be labelled as ‘channel concentration’). The opposite of editorial / programming concentration is editorial / programming competition.

Concentration of media content

Media diversity is the degree to which media content is heterogeneous. Assessing media diversity requires media content analysis. Media diversity manifests itself in two different forms, as reflective diversity and open diversity. Reflective diversity is the extent to which existing population preferences are proportionally represented in media content. Open diversity is the extent to which divergent preferences and opinions are quantitatively equally (i.e. statistically uniformly) represented in the media.

A concept that is closely related to media diversity is media profusion.[6] Media profusion may be defined as the extent to which the supply of media content to a media market exceeds the audience’s actual consumption of media content. Media profusion adds the dimension of choice to diversity, to indicate that a sheer increase in media supply in itself enhances the possibility for media consumers to choose from a variety of media products and services.

The Mediamonitor published a thematic study on profusion [7] in 2005 and mapped all the news published in several news titles, programmes and websites during one day in 2009 [8].

Audience concentration

Supplier concentration, editorial concentration and diversity are concepts on the supply side of media markets. On the demand side of markets we may measure audience (or exposure) concentration: the degree to which audience media preferences and usage are distributed over channels and titles. This is measured by means of media consumption time and a medium’s reach. By comparing the supply and demand on media markets, the match between media offered and users’ preferences may be assessed.

—      EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE

Editorial independence refers to the professional freedom entrusted to editors to make editorial decisions without interference from the owners of the media or any other state or non-state actors. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, when a media organization runs articles that may be unpopular with its owners or advertisers