Session 1: Media and Power: How Can the Media Hold Governments in Developing Countries, International Financial Institutions and Donors to Account?

This 2-page paper provides background for the first session of a conference that was held on March 22 2007 at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the United Kingdom (UK) to explore current international development strategies and thinking related to the role the media play in development and in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The conference - hosted by POLIS, a joint initiative of LSE and the London College of Communication - was designed to spark a more structured dialogue between those in the media for development community and a broader set of actors in the non-governmental, bilateral, academic and other development-related communities.

Building on the assumption that "free media is an essential component to the healthy development of a society, and indispensable to any possibility of real accountability within it", this paper (and the session for which it offers context) explores the media's role in holding the powerful to account, with an emphasis on African media. The Chair of the session, Mark Wilson, begins by providing a concise review of theories of media power - citing Amartya Sen, who argued (as Wilson puts it) that "the power of the people is supported by independent media".

With an eye to fostering this process, Wilson stresses the importance of advocacy which focuses on persuading government of the importance and value of supporting open and independent media which reflects the actual "voices" of the people. However, he indicates that it is not enough for media to be free; it must be pluralistic in form - scope, scale, ownership, and control. Furthermore, Wilson claims, there also needs to be pluralism of media content. In his view, the latter strategy is the responsibility of the media; facilitating "an engaged, informed and respected media" relies, that is, on their "determination to scrutinise and ask difficult questions", to the end of stimulating citizens to "demand and provide accountability more effectively in turn".

Citing UK-based journalist John Lloyd, Wilson provides specific suggestions for how the media can undertake this process. They must, he says, "tell truths in three ways. The first is truth through the 'clash of opinion' that characterises the political process. The second is truth uncovered through investigation that fuels the engine of accountability. The third is the truth of citizenship - the explanation of context and events, of which the narrative of opinion and revelation is part..."

In order to proceed along the lines that Lloyd recommends, Wilson suggests that Africa's media need to be strengthened, through such communication-centred approaches as building media capacity and professionalism and supporting the quality and diversity of content. He argues that media in the so-called developed world can play an important role here by "more vigorously exposing the hypocrisies and demanding the highest standards of transparency and accountability of international bodies and their own governments." In this context, the session focused on several questions, such as how different UK stakeholders could boost African media's ability to promote wider engagement, participation, and accountability - constituting what Wilson calls "deep democracy".

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