By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
London : Indians, both optimistic and nervous in a climate of rapid economic changes, consider social stability to be more important than press freedom, say pollsters who carried out a global survey published Monday.
India is one of only three countries surveyed where people’s belief in social stability emerges as stronger than their faith in press freedom. Russia and Singapore are the other two countries where belief in ‘freedom first’ does not seem to apply.
Forty-eight percent of Indians (versus 40 percent globally) put stability first, while 41 percent (56 percent globally) put freedom first, says the 14-nation poll of people’s attitudes toward press freedom conducted for the World Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The Indian attitude toward the question of freedom of press versus social stability was an important factor in the overall finding of the survey of more than 11,000 people – that world opinion on the importance of freedom of press is divided.
The findings from India surprised the pollsters, who said they may be related to India’s current rapid economic growth, where keenness to see the country prosper is combined with anxieties over any prospects of instability.
“India is a bit of a surprise because of its long history of democracy and freedom of press,” said Chris Coulter, vice-president of the London and Toronto-based polling firm GlobeScan.
“My feeling is that this attitude is a reflection of the huge dynamism and vast changes that are taking place in India, including the potential for economic changes and the speed of transformation. In this context, anything in social stability and harmony is viewed as important,” he told IANS.
In contrast, the importance given to social stability in Russia and Singapore may have their roots in other factors.
“In Russia, freedom of the press is definitely viewed as American or Western,” said Coulter, whereas in Singapore, people’s responses can be read given in the context of the “managed democracy” that the small Southeast Asian country practices.
Despite their love of social stability, however, Indians in general show a great sense of optimism and are in favour of having a say in news reporting decisions, according to the survey, which was conducted to celebrate the World Service’s 75th anniversary.
In terms of its ability to report the news accurately and without bias, the Indian media is perceived as freer than that of almost any other nation in the survey.
Seventy-two percent of Indians give a high freedom rating, compared with 56 percent worldwide. Only 10 percent give a low freedom rating, compared with 19 percent globally. Indians are also more positive about the accuracy and honesty of government or publicly funded news reporting than any other country surveyed.
“Indians are very, very happy with the overall performance of their press,” Coulter said.
And there’s good news for Doordarshan and All India Radio as well – 57 percent of Indians give a “good” performance rating to public news organisations, compared with 39 percent globally.
At the same time, private, for-profit news organisations are viewed more favourably, with 64 percent rating their performance “good” (versus 43 percent globally).
But 57 percent of Indians agree that growing consolidation of private media ownership is a major issue “because you often see owners’ political views emerge in the news”, while only 30 percent agree with the opposing view that “media owners do not interfere with the news content”.
Fifty-five percent think “it is important that people like me have a say in what gets reported in the news”, while 33 percent think “decisions as to which stories get reported in the news are best left to news organisations”.
North America and Western Europe give the strongest endorsement to press freedom, with up to 70 percent putting freedom over controls to ensure peace and social stability.
Overall, government or publicly-run news organisations are viewed slightly more negatively than their private, for-profit counterparts, especially in Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. Only in Egypt, Germany, Russia, and Singapore do people rate public media more positively than private media. Both public and private news organisations in the US and Britain are rated positively by around 30 percent of people.
“While people generally support a free media, the Western view of the necessity of a free press to ensure a fair society is not universally shared across all regions of the world,” said GlobeScan president Doug Miller.