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

2010] A RIGHT TO MEDIA? 465
amongst indigenous peoples worldwide. 132 Such collaboration can aid
in the creation of strategies for realizing rights to self-determination
through the exchange of resources and insights.
A number of recent U.N. studies on media and indigenous
peoples illustrate in more concrete terms why media access and
development are key components of ensuring indigenous peoples’
self-determining rights, whether in the context of language, culture,
land, discrimination, or education. While beyond the scope of this
Article, these studies yield additional information on how media has
been used in the past as a tool of discrimination and exclusion
against indigenous peoples, but also how media can now be used to
promote indigenous cultures, languages, self-representation, and
other basic human rights. 133 Some of the lessons learned from these
studies, however, are explored and incorporated in the next section
on regional and domestic practices.
IV. MEDIA PLURALISM IN REGIONAL AND DOMESTIC LAW
A. Media Pluralism
Despite the work of the United Nations, NGOs, and
indigenous communities, stereotyped portrayals of indigenous
peoples continue to be printed and broadcast. 134 A report by the
Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance noted that “the
132. Id. at 5.
133. Workshop on Indigenous Media, N.Y., N.Y., Dec. 11–14, 2000,
Promoting the Rights and Cultures of Indigenous Peoples through the Media
passim, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC/4/2001/3 (June 6, 2001); see also Workshop of
Indigenous Journalists, Madrid, Spain, Jan. 26–28, 1998, Report of the Workshop
of Indigenous Journalists, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1998/6 (May 18, 1998)
(detailing the minutes of the first meeting of indigenous journalists under the
U.N. auspices); Indigenous Media Dialogue, Durban, S. Afr., The Role of the
Media in Combating Discrimination Against Indigenous Peoples passim, U.N.
Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/2002/5 (May 16, 2002) (reporting the outcome of the
second conference of participants in indigenous media calling for more training
and networking).
134. A 2004 study on Maori and the media found that the reporting by
newspapers and television was “fairly unbalanced in their treatment of Maori
people and issues.” See ECOSOC, Comm’n on Human Rights, Report of the
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms of Indigenous People, Addendum, Mission to N.Z., para. 66, U.N. Doc.
E/CN.4/2006/78/Add.3 (Mar. 13, 2006).