Showing posts with label polyarchy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label polyarchy. Show all posts

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Countries that need to fix their media systems

I've been doing some research for a term paper on comparing democracies. Using Coppedge and Reinicke's Polyarchy and Contestation data-set, I've identified those countries which would be perfect polyarchies were it not for their media systems, where government information is privileged. They are:
  • Albania
  • Botswana
  • Cape Verde
  • Croatia
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador
  • Guyana
  • Honduras
  • Israel and the occupied territories
  • Kiribati
  • Mauritius
  • Mexico
  • Namibia
  • Panama
  • Ukraine
These countries are doing something right. That's to say, they score a one on fair elections, freedom of political organisation, and freedom of expression. But they're falling behind in their media systems. As the coding schema for the Coppedge and Reinicke data-set puts it:
Alternative sources of information are widely available but government versions are presented in preferential fashion. This may be the result of partiality in and greater availability of government-controlled media; selective closure, punishment, harassment, or censorship of dissident reporters, publishers, or broadcasters; or mild self-censorship resulting from any of these.

(The countries in the data-set are scored using the US State Department's Human Rights Report).