digital freedomination

Slavina Vasileva, student ID 2014-25155, Prof. Junseok Hwang, Theory and practice of Technological innovation (463.519-002)

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Slavina Vasileva, student ID 2014-25155,

Prof. Junseok Hwang, Theory and practice of Technological innovation (463.519-002)

Digital FREE.DOMiNation “Freedom of the press is essential to a democratic society. To uphold and protect it, and to

respect its diversity and its political, social and cultural missions, is the mandate of all

governments.” [1]

Contents Digital FREE.DOMiNation ........................................................................................................................... 1

1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 2

2. Background ....................................................................................................................................... 2

3. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 2

4. Goals ................................................................................................................................................. 2

5. Literature review ............................................................................................................................... 3

5.1. Media in Bulgaria .......................................................................................................................... 3

5.2. Monuments of the Soviet army (citizen’s perspective) ................................................................ 5

5.3. Media in Korea .............................................................................................................................. 6

6. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 6

7. References: ....................................................................................................................................... 7

8. Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 8


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1. Introduction

How do we access information? www.information.com – one single click and we have all

we can ever want: policy, business, crisis, financial, high-tech, entertainment, science, weather,

history, humanity, culinary, sport information, and so on. Just a single click – no more than 2

muscles involved, several tendons and we have pool of information overflowing us.

We are information society. That information lead us, help us, save us …. Does it?

Who controls all this information flow that overtakes us? Do we have the freedom to access

the truthful information or somebody hidden conduct what we see?

2. Background

Contemporary society should be free, independent, and happy because of the

achievements we’ve made. Unfortunately the world is not that perfect place that we want it or

think it is. Although all our good intensions, all our excuses for starting world wars, we are still

not free in our deep understandings, in our genuine impulse to be aware with all that is

happening or happened. The information is always adopted through somebody else’s sight, it is

always subjective. There is no specific problem in that – it cannot be other way. But in our

information society we have the chance easily and fast to access all the information that we need.

We can access variety of sources, variety of subjective opinions and to make our own. But that

information is not always as truthful as we expect it to be. The basic information is expected to

come from media. The media are “the fourth estate”[2] – they are called to observe, to watch, to

control the other three estates - executive, legislative and judicial. This is the main purpose of

media – to watch over the three basic estates and let the society knows what is happening within

them.

Our purpose is to find out if the media is free in finding and revealing the information to

the society or there is some obstacles for that and if so where they come from? We find this

question important firstly because the media could be seen as a litmus of democracy in single

society and secondly - from consumers’ perspective of view it is essential to receive all the

information truthfully and without intervention. Otherwise it won’t be information anymore,

right? It will be more of a propaganda – controlled and directed from those who has the power.

3. Methodology

To observe and analyze the questions pointed above and with the restrictions of the given

time, to fulfill our research area we will use the method of secondary analysis. For that reason

we will based our conclusions on research over scientific papers, studies, research, publications

in the media and others dealing with the freedom of speech matter in Bulgaria, European Union

and several remarks about Republic of Korea.

4. Goals

Before starting to analyze the situation particularly in Bulgaria and Europe Union in whole,

lets first look at the meaning of the words and what stands as an expectations behind them.

http://www.information.com/


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Freedom is a noun coming from Old English – frēodōm which means “the power to act,

speak, or think as one wants”. The word itself is compound from two other: free – “Able to act

or be done as one wishes; not under the control of another” and –dom, which is a suffix for

forming noun, denoting state or condition, rank or status, domain, class of people or attitudes,

associated with them; originally comes from Old English -dōm, meaning “decree, judgement”. So

far, freedom is burden with the meaning of domain of someone’s power to act, speak, or think

as one wants. This is a condition, status which this one owns.

Domination at the other hand is also a noun which means “exercise of power

or influence over someone or something, or the state of being so controlled”, originally comes

from Latin “domination(n-)” from the verb “dominari” or in English – “dominate”. Dominate is a

verb, meaning “Have power and influence over….”, originating from early 17th century:

from Latin dominat- “ruled, governed”, from the verb “dominari”, from “dominus” - lord,

master.[3]

So after these semantic analysis we can say that our research question is: Does somebody

controls, dominates, rules the information and freedom of speech? If so, as it is our assumption,

isn’t that limitation of our collective “power to act, speak, or think” as we want? And the question

standing above – who is that “master”, “lord” who rules our freedom? It should be us – the

democratic society stays on that statement…. But is it?

In resume – Digital freedom for information society or domination of ones over that

freedom of information?

5. Literature review

5.1. Media in Bulgaria

In our research we find out several reports made within the borders of Europe Union

Commission which observed the freedom of speech at level “media” in European countries. Their

findings states several embarrassing findings.

In article “The Problems of Bulgarian Media Are Already a European Problem” published in

2012, http://www.euinside.eu/, Ralitsa Kovacheva made a statement that Bulgaria has a problem

with transparency of media ownership and financing, the society does not know who (really)

owns the media. It is an undeniable fact that media across Europe (and not only) are facing major

problems stemming from the financial crisis, globalisation, technological development and a

number of other factors. However, it is also true that Bulgarian media suffer from specific

problems, originating from the local political landscape.

According to “Reporters without borders” and their report World press

freedom index 2014, Bulgaria takes 100 place in terms of freedom of speech. Republic of Korea

is at 57th place which actually is really good result. Interesting fact is that the leading countries in

terms of freedom of speech are located in North Europe (except New Zealand):

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/able

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/wish

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/exercise

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/influence

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/control

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/Latin

http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php

http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php


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Source: Reporters without borders, retrieved from rsf.org, 2014.12.01 [4]

The above showned place in global rank for „Freedom index 2014“ could be explain easily

with the findings of several researchers and published as Reports before European Commission.

Firstly we will stop at report named „Maping digital media: Bulgaria“, 2013.03.01 by the Open

society foundations, written by Vesislava Antonova and Andrian Georgiev [5]. In their report the

two authors examine the global opportunities and risks that are created for media by the

following developments:

the switch-over from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting;

growth of new media platforms as sources of news;

convergence of traditional broadcasting with telecommunications.

Television remains the dominant platform for accessing news, with 99 percent penetration

in 2011. Between 2000 and 2011, a third of all newspapers ceased publication and the total

annual circulation fell by 15 percent. Nevertheless, the percentage of people who read daily

newspapers has stayed stable: roughly 36 percent. Most newspapers have fought the fall in

circulation by publishing more sensational content, yellow news, shrinking news rooms, and

hiring young reporters willing to work for less money.

Overall, newspapers continue to be a vital source of information for the public, despite

losing the fight for online advertising to native news websites. There is limited use of online

subscriptions because of the large number of news websites that publish content for free.

The internet does not seem to fully displace conventional media, rather more people than

ever are engaging in media multi-tasking. More than half of Bulgarians are online. An estimated

41 percent of Bulgarians watch television and surf the web simultaneously, compared with an EU

average of 59 percent [6].


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News is the dominant content people consume on the web, although most of it comes from

online-only outlets that rewrite content from traditional media and press agencies. Currently only

a handful of Bulgarian media engage in in-depth journalistic investigations.

The reporters note the growing international concern about media freedom in Bulgaria. In

early 2013, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe announced that it would renew

the monitoring of media freedom and media ownership transparency in Bulgaria because of

persistent problems. Also in January 2013, however, EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes announced

that the EU would not intervene to resolve media issues in Bulgaria. She urged the Bulgarian

people to start a national discussion in which she would serve only as a mediator.

Specifically, the report remarks on how media independence is limited by indirect state

subsidies to the media through advertising, and by the lack of transparency of the New Bulgarian

Media Group’s political and financial connections.

The report calls for a radical overhaul of Bulgaria’s media legislation, in order to ensure the

transparency of media ownership, which can currently be concealed behind obscure foreign

companies; and to prohibit the widespread practice of off shore companies buying Bulgarian

media, network, and multiplex operators.

There is also an urgent need to design mechanisms to ensure that the state does not

provide indirect funding (via allocations to support advertisements for EU programs) to media

outlets in exchange for positive coverage. (There is unfortunately no prospect that these issues

can be resolved by media self-regulation.)

In terms to certify that internet has brought forums, blogs, and citizen journalism latforms

into existence we are going to stop at the blog page of Magdalina Genova – “The blog of the

nervous shark. In her blog Magdalina Genova made a topic “Media, freedom of speech and truth

after Neelie Kroes”, posted on 2012.09.22 where she put a focus over the topic about the

independence of the media and all the discussions started among citizens in social networks,

forums, blogs and private conversations, each of them showing how shocked, filled with disgust

and anger are they. The citizens seems to be angry for continuously repeating attempts from

media to replace the reality. [7]

5.2. Monuments of the Soviet army (citizen’s perspective)

There is one else little different way to look at the freedom of speech. As we already

discussed above – the freedom is the “power to act, speak, or think as one wants”. And as a

prolongation of that right several citizens demonstrate their different way of thinking, acting and

even speaking. In the morning of 17th of June 2011 a monument in the center of the Sofia wakes

up in changed colors – all the sculptures are painted like “Justice league” from comic-book series.

The painting is attached with inscription: “Up-to-date”. It is so-called political art, and it is obvious

an expression of political protest. After that happening, several others are following on historical

dates and with political nuance. The 7th political act is from 7th of September, 2014.


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The opinions of the citizens, politicians and analyst varies from one pole to another – for

ones it is a way to express opinion, to have freedom to speak, for others – it is act of vandalism.

Similar thing happened in front of one of the political party‘s headquarters, two people

were captured and they were indicted in hooliganism crime. In October 2014 the Court

pronounce acquittal. The court states that the crime was unproven against indicted ones, and as

a democracy society there is no need for punishment in terms of article 10, 2 from European

convention on human rights (Freedom of expression).

5.3. Media in Korea

As in the case of Bulgaria mentioned above, we found out indicators for the same process

happening here, in Korea. The media are eager to produce breaking news. Such a phenomenon

as “yellow news” is not alien to Korea also. It is possible that such a contents of the news are

derivative of citizens’ demand but if it is so, there should be boundary between the “yellow”

information and media’s moral.

Unfortunately this eager for breaking news severely appear during the Sewol ferry tragedy

in 16th of April, 2014. For the first couple of hours the media followed the government’s reports

and announcements, they didn’t do any journalistic research by them own, blindly relied on

government’s information and under their pressure. Too many of the reports turned out to be

false or unconfirmed. In severe competitive media industry environment the reporters become

“writing machines”. As e reason for this misleading and false information Park Chong-ryul [8]

points out that the media are actually used their words to be dictated from the government.

“This is dangerous. Reporters should never forget about their passion to fight against injustice.”

- Park Chong-ryul in the same interview said.

The next really disturbing fact is that from the day the sinking occurred (16th of April) in the

morning news was said that all 325 high school students on board the ship had been rescued - a

report that proved devastatingly false. The media was mute for the protest of the parents after

the tragedy happened. On 29th of April media’s focus was turn to the visit of President Park to

the government memorial in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province and her consoling of elderly woman –

who turned out not to be a family member. [9]

Unfortunately, even if in the rank list of “Reporters without borders” Bulgaria and Korea

takes really distant positions, on the map of Press freedom from “Freedom house”, both are in

the same area – “Partly free” [10]. It seems that the problem with freedom of speech is serious

and some inadmissible forces puts limitations on it.

6. Conclusions

From the observed literature and from the perspective of citizen, it seems that the freedom

of speech is not always guarantee. There is still forces which controls the media content, they


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decide what to be announced, when to be announced and even if it should be announced. There

is no wonder why Bulgaria is taking the 100 place in “Reporters without borders” index for 2014.

Maybe the society is not mature enough to hear the truth. Maybe the democracy isn’t developed

enough yet. Or maybe the dominant ones are not ready to share the truth with the information

nation. But as a human everyone deserves to know the truth no matter if it is ugly or inconvenient.

This is our power as humans – “power to act, speak, or think as one wants” and to know the truth,

to access truthful information, to be confident while reading a journalistic article that it is not

political “fiction”, that it is not what we are hoping to read or expecting to read. As a humans we

have the power, not just the right, to be truthfully informed. Especially since we are the

information nation existing in digital era.

This proposal do have several limitations – the examination is not held in deep manner and

it is not cover all the intended scope. This leaves possibility for future work on the matter.

“The truth and freedom of speech and their protection are not just a job for the people

who are working with speech. They are responsibility of all the citizens and are coming from all

they do or not willing to do. As the policy is not just for the politicians but are for our obligations

and responsibilities as a citizens. And humans.”[7]

7. References:

[1] European Charter on Freedom of the Press, 2009

[2] The term “fourth estate” is firstly used in parliamentary debate in 1787 from Edmund Burke;

Schultz, Julianne (1998). Reviving the fourth estate. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University

Press, p. 49 http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511597138

[3] Oxford dictionary - http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/, retrieved 2014.12.01, 12.00 am

[4] Reporters without borders - rsf.org;

[5] Mapping digital media: Bulgaria - Vesislava Antonova and Andrian Georgiev, Mart 2013, Open

society foundations Report;

[6] Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Bulgaria, “Media multi-tasking means more active

consumers,” September 2012, http://iabulgaria.bg/;

[7] Медии, свобода на словото и истинa след Нийли Крус – Media, freedom of speech and

truth after Neelie Kroes – Magdalina Genova, The blog of nervous shark,

http://nervousshark.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/mediafreedom-of-speech-and-truth-post-

neelie-croes/, retrieved 2014.12.02

[8] Sewol disaster reveals failure of mass media as watchdog – interview of Cho Chung-un with

Park Chong-ryul, president of the Journalists Association of Korea, Korea Herald, published on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511597138

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

http://iabulgaria.bg/

http://nervousshark.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/mediafreedom-of-speech-and-truth-post-neelie-croes/




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2014-05-16 21:16, retrieved on 4th of December, 2014 from

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140516001217

[9] Why are Sewol families so angry with the media?, posted May.10,2014 13:38 KST, retrieved

on 2014.12.04, from

http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/636360.html

[10] The Map of Press Freedom reflects the findings of Freedom House’s study Freedom of the

Press 2014: A Global Survey of Media Independence, which rates the level of press freedom in

197 countries and territories during 2013, retrieved on 2014.12.02, from

https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/blog/FOTP2014map_PDF.pdf

11. Mapping digital media: Gatekeeping in digital media - Peter Olaf Looms, April 2011, Open

society foundations Report;

12. Mapping digital media: Global findings, Digital journalism: making news, breaking news -

Fernando Bermejo, Ying Chan and others, July 2014, Open society foundations Report;

13. Evolving regulation for media freedom and pluralism in the European Union - Elda Brogi, Pier

Luigi Parcu, EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2014/09, online 6 August 2014

14. Who owns the media? – Simeon Djankov, Caralee McLiesh, Tatiana Nenova and Andrei

Shleifer – The world bank, June 2001

8. Appendix

[10]

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140516001217

http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/636360.html

https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/blog/FOTP2014map_PDF.pdf

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