The Feral Beast (Het verscheurende dier)

The infringement of the freedom of the press in the Western countries started already over ten years ago, not as a result of any act of government, but by the new generation of managers who came to power, first in television and later also in radio and printed media. Their appareance coincided in many countries with the rise of the commercial audiovisual media and the start of the great catch for marketshares and audiencenumbers. The succes of current affairs and news programmes wasn’t measured in quality anymore, but in quantity. Moreover, this was done by managers who did no longer stem from the newsdesk but from schools of management. They were trained in projectstyle approaches, not in building a loyal and informed public over the years.

One of the marketassumptions which came with them was that foreign news is less attractive then domestic news. Reviews spoke against this assumption, so strongly that in some cases, these reviews were forbidden by the higher management as the results over and over again showed their assumptions to be wrong.

The always-in-meeting-with-itself-management didn’t appreciate any recognition for quality of programmes they wanted to slash. Some independent reporters were even afraid of being awarded, as it could mean losing their asssignments – the most effective way to curtain the no longer wanted in-depth reports. This trend persists till today - and I cannot even quote some award-winning journalists, for fear they would lose their job.
 
Yet, these experiences were mild in comparison with the hardhitting changes in countries around us, like France, the UK and Germany. Of the production companies for independent journalist we worked with in the last fifteen years, the mayority have disappeared or changed working field in the past five years. One of them I regretted to leave the scene of current affairs documentaries was the Paris based Point du Jour, famous for its beautiful filming, which captured the viewers from the very beginning to the end ¬– as the ratings showed, as long as they were allowed to prove that quality really pays.

Combined with this narrowing journalistic focus on domestic issues, came the new adagium: every report had to ‘cause waves in the Hofvijver’, as one of the new managers enthousiasticly put it. This attitude was self-reinforcing, as no-one wanted to stay behind. The focus shifted to The Hague, or Westminster, or the Elysee. As a result, journalism, be it written press or the audiovisual media, have developed an appetite for hunting down politicians who can’t stand the heat. Former prime minister Tony Blair described this new media in 2007 as ‘a feral beast obsessed with impact’, with the strong competition for the rare stories that can cause the so desired political waves forcing them to ‘hunt in a pack’.

To the surprise of many, one of his fiercest journalistic opponents, BBC Newsnight anchor Jeremy Paxman, agreed with Blair’s assesment of the new media. Paxman even questions the raison d’etre of media like the BBC if this trend is to continue. Paxman even questions the raison d’etre of media like the BBC if this trend is to continue.

He is right in doing so. The function of the free press is to be the guardian of an open democracy, by controlling the political powers thought investigative journalism, not by committing character murder on the weaker political species.

Paxman’s somber views were later underlined by an authorative questionnaire on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the famous BBC Worldservice. Its results were utterly contradicting at first sight. In western countries like the US, the UK, France and Germany, 70 percent of the 11,344 interviewed people consirered freedom of the press as more important than social stability. This underlines the importance they attach to a free press. Yet, only an average of 29 per cent thought their media did a good job in reporting news accurately. Germany had a particularly poor view of their many private companies, with just 18 per cent giving them a high rating for accurate news.   

These developments must alarm journalists, managers and politicians alike. If we believe in the fundaments of a transparant democracy, where people can obtain the necessary information if they want to, we must discuss the position of the press. Now, people turn away, as a majority no longer views the information they get as reliable and relevant, even if they highly value a free press, though one with an unquestionable reliability.

We, the journalists, need the support of this public. Not only to guarantee our income, as viewers and subscribers, but also for our protection. In many countries, journalists are a hunted species, too. I know this from far too close, as to many of the independent journalists I worked with have lost their lives in the field. The first of them was the experienced French cameraman Olivier Quemener, filming for ABC Australia, EO Antenna and 2Vandaag in the kasbash of Algiers where the terror of the FIS raged during the bloody years of extremist violence. Married to a woman from the kasbash, he knew where to go and to hide. But the deathsquad sent by the FIS came without warning and he died instantly.

It shows the contempt extremist groups and self-focused governments hold for journalists, a contempt that hasn’t changed over the years. So, journalists pay the real price for the freedom of information, as in Russia, Iran, Sudan, China, Iraq, Afghanistan. The respect or disrespect for journalists goes together with respect for the values of democracy, freedom of religion and speech and human rights, which need to be defended by our entire society.

Where this all to visible when journalists are killed or imprisoned, we also need to address the shifting role of journalism in our own countries, as a barometer of the health of our democracy, hit by the short-term managersdisease that led us into the present economic crisis and plagued by the roaming hunting packs of journalists infected by this disease

Speech on the occasion of the debate on the Freedom of the Press, 8 mei 2009, Maison Descartes
Jan van Benthem is foreign commentator for Nederlands Dagblad and for Radio1, Ditisdedag
He is a former chief editor of daily current affairs programme 2Vandaag (now replaced by EenVandaag)