The Impact of Media Concentration on Professional ... - OSCE

Cross-ownership has also increased since the liberalization <strong>of</strong>the electronic media market. Trade unions depict this developmentas “worrying”, as the investment <strong>of</strong> daily newspapers,for example, in privately owned radio stations are seen as adangerous drainage <strong>of</strong> financial resources <strong>of</strong> daily papers.<strong>The</strong> combined immediate effects <strong>of</strong> lesser financial resourcesand the general economic slump on the German daily newspapermarket are described by the unions as diminishing journalisticfreedoms, reducing journalistic pluralism and providingfewer job opportunities for pr<strong>of</strong>essional journalists.In many areas industrial reality seems to have anticipatedpolitical reforms by a large margin. Already 31 per cent <strong>of</strong> thejournalists contacted during this survey conceded the editorialline <strong>of</strong> their newspaper is influenced by advertisement. (Fig 3)Private reactions both from trade union representativesand individual journalists suggest that this development is seenby the writing staff <strong>of</strong> German dailies as particularly worrying.Does advertisement influence the editorial line<strong>of</strong> your newspaper? Fig. 3Yes 31No 690 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100Still, when it comes to evaluating the editorial line <strong>of</strong> theirnewspapers German pr<strong>of</strong>essional journalists do not seem tohave much reason to complain.COUNTRY REPORTS – GERMANY 103