Marius Dragomir Discusses State Media Research in New Podcast

It is worrying that in countries where independent public media traditionally had a central role in the media ecosystem, we have seen negative developments, CMDS Director Marius Dragomir said in a new podcast by the Public Media Alliance.

The podcast, entitled Media Uncovered, focuses on the future of public media. Its starting point is Marius Dragomir’s study on the State of State Media that has found that 80% of the world’s state-administered media lack editorial independence. Dragomir says this high figure is not surprising, given the fact that in some regions of the world, the state media sector has not changed for decades. 

What is worrying, he says, is that the percentage of state-controlled media has increased in the world. In countries with a tradition of independent public media, there has been a marked deterioration in the state of public media in recent years. In some western European countries, authorities have started to attack public broadcasters or tried to make changes how they are organized.

For example, in Denmark, a country with a really powerful public media sector, the authorities are trying to cut financial resources. Another example is the UK, where there have been many attempts to reform the BBC, a paragon of public media for many countries in the world, Dragomir explains.

The podcast also features Paul Thompson, CEO of New Zealand’s public radio.

In addition to Marius Dragomir’s study, other CMDS publications have discussed some of these issues, including the Media Influence Matrix: UK report, or specifically the Media Reform Coalition’s policy briefing on the BBC license fee, based partly on the report.

Photo by Jacob Hodgson on Unsplash