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Forums - General - worldwide press freedom rankings

megaman79 on 26 April 2009

31. Does the media undertake investigative journalism ?

This is the key problem with fiscally responsible journalism. The whole western media runs the exact same story about the old virgin british singing reality show contestant, but theres no money for proper investigative work.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

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highwaystar101 on 26 April 2009
Tyrannical said:
What a bunch of lies.
Deny the Holocaust and you can go to jail in sveral of those least restrictive countries.

 

Don't be upset, 36th is very good. It mens it is 99% free.

Besides, I imigine that in the countries where it is illegal* to deny the holocaust, the press are allowed to report freely on it.

*Not the correct word to be honest



FaRmLaNd on 26 April 2009

Australia is about where I expected. Not the highest but doing well enough.

We have no bill of rights for example.



highwaystar101 on 26 April 2009
Retrasado said:
SamuelRSmith said:
I bet it's the libel laws that drop the UK down, or, at least, has a lot to do with it.

tbh, I don;t think you can realistically have much less regulation than the UK does unless you want the entire media to be like the comment section on a Youtube video.

 

Ofcom guidelines state that a terrestrial TV channel cannot have a political bias, that's why the BBC is overly careful when it comes to politics.

I don't think it should be like that, it should be a little loser btu it needs guidelines still so we don't have a load of channels become FOX news.

 



highwaystar101 on 26 April 2009

Also, people fighting the fact that their country should be higher. To be honest as long as you are in the top 50 that is pretty much 99% free I think...



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SamuelRSmith on 26 April 2009
megaman79 said:
31. Does the media undertake investigative journalism ?

This is the key problem with fiscally responsible journalism. The whole western media runs the exact same story about the old virgin british singing reality show contestant, but theres no money for proper investigative work.

 

Which is why the BBC is so awesome. Because they don't have to worry about advertising revenue, they can show real news.

The result? The BBC actually has a much higher percentage of the marketshare.

And it doesn't just apply to the news aswell, because they don't have to worry about advertising revenues, they can risk running certain TV shows that other stations wouldn't run (like dramas, scientific documentaries, etc), and, generally, these shows go on to becoming very popular.

----

It's not just worrying about gaining viewers, either. I remember seeing this report on how Fox News had done an invesigationary piece that put Monsanto Corp. in a very bad light. However, because Monsanto threatened to pull their advertising from Fox channels if the report was run (and Monsanto was one of Fox's largest advertisers (at the time)), Fox pulled the story at the very last minute.



SamuelRSmith on 26 April 2009
highwaystar101 said:
Retrasado said:
SamuelRSmith said:
I bet it's the libel laws that drop the UK down, or, at least, has a lot to do with it.

tbh, I don;t think you can realistically have much less regulation than the UK does unless you want the entire media to be like the comment section on a Youtube video.

 

Ofcom guidelines state that a terrestrial TV channel cannot have a political bias, that's why the BBC is overly careful when it comes to politics.

I don't think it should be like that, it should be a little loser btu it needs guidelines still so we don't have a load of channels become FOX news.

 

The political bias doesn't change what a channel runs, it just changes the way it is presented. I mean, remember that whole story of that intel-guy who went to the BBC because he knew that there weren't any WMDs in Iraq, and the BBC run the story, despite protests from the Government. The whole thing went to Parliament, etc.

The informant got put under so much pressure that he ended up committing suicide.

This just proved, however, how free the press was in this country when it came to political issues. The BBC, the only channel that the Government has the power to destroy (by getting rid of the TV license), was able to openly criticise and strutify the Government on a huge and very contentious issue.



Kasz216 on 26 April 2009
SamuelRSmith said:
highwaystar101 said:
Retrasado said:
SamuelRSmith said:
I bet it's the libel laws that drop the UK down, or, at least, has a lot to do with it.

tbh, I don;t think you can realistically have much less regulation than the UK does unless you want the entire media to be like the comment section on a Youtube video.

 

Ofcom guidelines state that a terrestrial TV channel cannot have a political bias, that's why the BBC is overly careful when it comes to politics.

I don't think it should be like that, it should be a little loser btu it needs guidelines still so we don't have a load of channels become FOX news.

 

The political bias doesn't change what a channel runs, it just changes the way it is presented. I mean, remember that whole story of that intel-guy who went to the BBC because he knew that there weren't any WMDs in Iraq, and the BBC run the story, despite protests from the Government. The whole thing went to Parliament, etc.

The informant got put under so much pressure that he ended up committing suicide.

This just proved, however, how free the press was in this country when it came to political issues. The BBC, the only channel that the Government has the power to destroy (by getting rid of the TV license), was able to openly criticise and strutify the Government on a huge and very contentious issue.

At the moment. 

The problem is.  The BBC is still in a fairly vulerable position.

Having a few state run tv stations is fine... but when they  have a really large market share...

Also... how the heck does someone decide if a station has political bias?



SamuelRSmith on 26 April 2009

Well, yes, theoretically, the BBC could be bad, but, technically, the BBC's rights to be free from Governmental control is protected by a Royal Charter.

What's more, no party that would want to censor the BBC, or any other TV station, has ever won a seat in Parliament. They have a long way to go to getting into power.