Human Rights and the Media
Posted December 10th, 2008 by Megan Tady
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and people across the globe are commemorating Human Rights Day.
Yet while today we can marvel at this extraordinary declaration to protect the rights of every individual, we also take note that decades later, injustice and inequality, violence and terror, and egregious abuses of power are still prevalent throughout the world.
How does it happen that in 2008, we’re still witnessing human rights abuses and genocide? Partly because the witnesses are few. Abuse and impunity can thrive in an environment of silence, where actions go unnoticed and unreported to the global community.
When is the last time you read an investigative report in the mainstream media about the genocide in the Congo, or watched a TV news report female domestic workers in Jordan? Unfortunately, human rights abuses rarely lead or even appear in the corporate news cycle, wholly ignoring the situations unfolding for millions of people across the world and leaving the American public unaware and uninvolved unless they have access to alternative media.
“After you’ve had somebody say to you for the thousandth time, ‘How come we never hear about these issues in the media,’ you start to realize that the media itself is an issue,” said Svend Robinson, Canada’s first openly gay elected official, in Robert McChesney’s book Rich Media, Poor Democracy.
Corporate media haven’t necessarily set out to shun human rights, but the very infrastructure of a consolidated media means that many important stories – particularly those that require investigative and overseas reporting – go untold. As big media companies have bought up more and more news outlets, they’ve stretched themselves thin, leaving many print publications financially vulnerable and unable to sustain the staff that can adequately report on human rights issues. And as companies have become increasingly beholden to flashing a profit to Wall Street stakeholders, many news outlets have slashed foreign news bureaus, laid off staff, and replaced real reporting with celebrity journalism and punditry..
Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the full ramifications for a consolidated media, but today marks the perfect opportunity to reflect on how human rights abuses won’t stop until our mainstream media start reporting on them.
