Lies and Videotape

By CHRISTOPHER WALKER and ROBERT W. ORTTUNG
NYT

FACEBOOK, Twitter and other social media have revolutionized the global press landscape, helping to dislodge dictators in Tunisia and Egypt and foment protests in Bahrain and Syria.

But another revolution is taking shape simultaneously in old media institutions — one that could break the stranglehold that the state news media hold over unfree societies.

Dictators make controlling the news media a priority for a reason. For most authoritarian states, state news media, especially television, have helped leaders stay in power by creating a parallel reality for their populations and depriving dissenters of a wider audience. Tunisia’s news media environment was routinely ranked among the world’s most stifling in Freedom House’s annual assessment of press freedom before this year’s revolution. In Egypt, state television stood steadfastly behind President Hosni Mubarak, deceptively playing old video of an empty Tahrir Square rather than broadcasting images of the millions protesting there.

Autocratic governments spare no effort to ensure that their state news media provide their audiences a steady diet of regime-friendly news and information. In Mr. Mubarak’s Egypt, some 46,000 people worked at the government’s news media complex, and the government-controlled Egyptian Radio and Television Union still owns all non-satellite television broadcasters. While growing numbers of viewers have turned to Al Jazeera and other private channels, significant segments of Egypt’s population continue to rely on the state news media. A 2007 study found that 72 percent of Egyptians turned to state television as their main source of political news.

(More here.)