Article: Improve Media

Improve media quality, strengthen governments

By Marifeli Perez-Stable
Miami Herald
marifeli18@hotmail.com

Except for Costa Rica, democracy is fragile in Central America. How could it be otherwise after civil wars, dictatorships and even genocide? Other than the decade-long spring of 1944-1954 that the United States cut short in Guatemala, the region had no meaningful experience of elected government before 1990. Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have finally begun to sow democracy.

But it isn't easy. Take the media, for instance. Democracy burdens journalists in ways that repressive regimes never did. Denouncing the latter's brutalities certainly carried enormous risks, but the fundamental issue -- freedom -- was starkly drawn. Democracies, on the other hand, need the media as watchdogs that inform the public, air diverse views and provoke debate. Independence from the powers that be -- the government, the private sector and political parties -- is a sine qua non of professional journalism.

Citizens in Central America give journalists high marks on trustworthiness, a ranking that may be as much a reflection of how dysfunctional political institutions are as it is of their own merits. The media are, nonetheless, well placed to do their part in bolstering democracy. Yet, it is still the tallest of orders.

Since the early 1990s, the region has been grappling with profound transformations. Democratic shortfalls aside, the marked decline of political violence in lands that had been charred for so long is no small matter. Criminal violence has, however, soared, even as the military and paramilitary groups sometimes fall back on their violent habits of yore. Liberalization has unleashed market forces that -- on their own -- have not attended to the public's well-being. While democracy has allowed new social actors to mobilize for their demands, entrenched hierarchies of privilege have yielded little room.

Democratic fragility in Central America is, thus, the outcome of a past that left no legacy of reform and a present that is confronting all at once the challenge of social inclusion while upholding democracy. In Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina, for example, this challenge was answered -- albeit far from fully -- over decades, and only in Costa Rica did democracy always prevail.

The media are, in fact, more crucial for settling a democratic order in Central America than is or was the case elsewhere. Investigative reporting is their most efficacious weapon. Among the principal issues are corruption, the lackluster performance of democratic institutions, impunity for past human-rights abuses, gang violence, the military's implicit prerogative in many civilian matters, a host of unresolved land issues and the rights of indigenous peoples.

Though par for the course of good journalism, independence and freedom of expression are harder to come by in Central America. Traditional power structures have simply been superimposed on democratic institutions, which means that the latter are considerably less autonomous than is the case in consolidated democracies. As a result, democracy has spawned subtler forms of censorship that respond to outside pressures and often preempt investigative journalism. Overlapping powers and a political culture only incipiently democratic are hard ground for a robust media.

As profit-making enterprises with a charge to serve the public, the media also face internal tensions. In Mexico and the United States, for example, trends in some quarters favor the lowest possible common denominator quality-wise as the quickest route to bigger audiences and higher gains. Is that the future of the Central American media?

If it is, then the media will not do their part to bolster democracy in the region. The newly founded Central American Forum on the Media and Democracy -- a consortium of owners, editors and journalists -- is wagering that something can be done to buck these trends. The group is seeking to improve media quality, encourage ongoing training of journalists and develop criteria for self-regulation. It aims for a regionwide reach that, in turn, translates into a regionwide pressure group. The forum is a hopeful step in the right direction.

Ties between citizens and the political systems of Central America are tenuous. There is widespread disillusionment with the current state of democracy. This desencanto, however, is corrosive only if it is not marshaled -- democratically -- to force politicians to govern better and institutions to be responsive. Unrelenting watchdogs as the media should be are, indeed, very much in order.

Marifeli Pérez-Stable is vice president for democratic governance at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C.