Contributing to better governance

In his most recent book “The bottom billion”, Paul Collier stresses the role of the media in reforming governance in countries with high levels of corruption. As the noted development economist from Oxford University elaborates, the government of Alberto Fujimori in Peru bribed members of parliament, judges, newspaper editors and the staff of radio and television stations. However, it neglected a small satellite channel specialising in business TV – and that was why Fujimori eventually fell. Someone leaked a video of a judge being bribed, the video was broadcast, and protests escalated beyond control.

Another example Collier mentions is Nigeria. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was the country’s finance minister from 2003 to 2006, decided to publish exactly how much money the federal government was disbursing to the states on a monthly basis. Her intention, of course, was to make regional authorities more accountable. “On the first day of publication newspaper circulation spiked,” Collier reports on page 150, “citizens wanted to know what was happening to their money. That and the death threats made her realise that she was on the right track.”

Unfortunately, the media are not always and everywhere prepared to fulfil their role as the “fourth estate”. In many cases, those who run papers and broadcast stations sometimes even lack the intention of doing so. Corruption, as mentioned in the case of Peru, also affects journalists and their bosses. Moreover, independent reporting takes guts. Those who feel threatened by undesired coverage tend to be powerful, and may want to retaliate. Finally, issues of public finance and development planning are complex, only skilled professionals can be expected to come up with sophisticated coverage.

Therefore, the annual IIJ Summer Academy deals with “Freedom and responsibility in the Media”. InWEnt’s International Institute for Journalism hosts this four-week course in Hamburg every summer. Lecturers have included prominent professionals from leading German newspapers based in this city: Matthias Nass (Die Zeit), Susanne Kölbl (Der Spiegel) and Michael Jürgs (formerly of Der Stern). Foreign experts such as Vidya Subrahmaniam of the Indian quality daily The Hindu and Yaw Baudu-Ayebofoh of Ghana’s The Daily Graphic have also acted as resource persons. Another prominent contributor is Hans Kleinstäuber, a professor who teaches media matters at the University of Hamburg.

The summer school caters to journalists up to the age of 30. This year’s course is taking part this month, items on the agenda are as diverse as investigative reporting, the role of press clubs and Germany’s media regulation. “International exchange matters very much,” says Werner Eggert of the IIJ, “and so does international networking.” Professional attitudes, after all, are shaped by peer pressure, among other things. “We want young colleagues to understand the foundations, functions and limits of press freedom,” Eggert adds. Ivonne Guzmann of Ecuador’s Diario El Commercio agrees that international exchange is useful. “It was such an amazing experience”, the former participant says of InWEnt’s summer academy. (dem)