A Right to Media? Lorie M. Graham - Columbia Law School

460 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [41:429
traditions, customary laws, language, and culture. Moreover, the
political, economic, social, and cultural development of indigenous
communities, as well as their participation in state decision-making
proceses, can be facilitated by the development of indigenous media
and increased access to non-indigenous media. Media rights ensure
the free flow of information and the facilitation of communication,
both of which are essential to strengthening indigenous peoples’
political status and development.
However, the converse is also true with respect to selfdetermination
and media. As one scholar notes:
Communication is an integral symbiotic factor in the
growth of ethnic self-determination: it leads to and
emanates from it . . . . Prior to the favorable settlement of a
land claims suit, an indigenous people has neither the
political power nor the economic capability of establishing a
media system of their own. With the favorable settlement of
such a suit, they are free to and capable of establishing
such a system; this further consolidates their self-rule and
allows for the promotion of ethnic nationalism. 119
The ILO Convention No. 169 connects the right of information and
communication to rights that impact and emanate from selfdetermination.
120 For instance, Article 30 of this Convention requires
governments to “adopt measures appropriate to the traditions and
cultures of the peoples concerned, to make known to them their
rights and duties, especially in regard to labour, economic
opportunities, education and health matters, social welfare and their
rights deriving from this Convention.” 121 According to Article 30,
“making known their rights” may be done by “means of written
translations and through the use of mass communications in the
languages of [indigenous] peoples.” 122 Thus, mass media becomes an
important mechanism for the realization of the critical rights that
make up the principle of self-determination, from economic rights to
rights to self-government and land.
119. Scott R. Olson, Indigenous Self-Determination and Media
Development: The Land Claims Variable 2 (1987) (Paper Presented at the 73rd
Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association in Boston, Mass., Nov.
5–8, 1987), available at http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql
/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1c/2e/d3.pdf.
120. Indigenous Convention, supra note 39, art. 30.
121. Id.
122. Id.