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

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is quite remarkable. <strong>The</strong> national dailies, which for the timebeing are mainly read in Vilnius and the main cities, try to getinto the regional and local markets by adding regional supplementsto their national editions. In reaction, a couple <strong>of</strong> localand regional papers founded an association to better promotetheir aims.A quite common phenomenon in Lithuanian print mediaseems to be the unclear separation between editorial contentand paid advertisement. So called paid articles are written byjournalists but, in fact, do not contain impartial information buta positive description <strong>of</strong> a certain issue, company or product.A mandatory by-line, indicating the sponsor, is <strong>of</strong>ten missing.<strong>The</strong>re is little cross-ownership between print and electronicor audio-visual media in Lithuania. Besides the PublicService Broadcasting Programme with its two channels, allcommercial TV stations are owned by foreign media companies.Only regional TV channels are Lithuanian owned.A general problem, not only regarding Lithuania, is thelack <strong>of</strong> reliable data on media ownership structures, the circulationand other statistical data. Although there is a law inLithuania that the ownership shares are to be made public tothe Ministry <strong>of</strong> Culture, only a few media outlets follow thisrule and not much is done to enforce it.156 THE IMPACT OF MEDIA CONCENTRATION ON PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM
5.6.2 Survey ResultsIt is remarkable that the survey results regarding the question <strong>of</strong>whether advertisement is influencing the editorial line <strong>of</strong> thepaper, differs from the impression won by personal interviewswith journalists, journalists associations and academia representatives.As mentioned above, it is reported that it is quite acommon practice in Lithuania for journalists to write advertisementpieces and that “paid for information” is neither clearlymarked as advertisement nor separated from editorial content.An explanation for the 67 per cent that don’t see an influence<strong>of</strong> advertisement on the editorial line might be that journaliststhemselves, differentiate between their own journalisticcontent and the articles delivered or paid for by others asjust another means <strong>of</strong> financing their title. However, the dangeris that this differentiation is not easy for the average readerto make.<strong>The</strong> largest regional daily newspaper Kauno Diena isowned by the Norwegian media company ORKLA, which hasestablished its “Publishing Principles” with the Lithuanian editorialstaff as well. No other newspaper was reported to haveguidelines like this.However, two thirds <strong>of</strong> the journalists were in favour <strong>of</strong>having guidelines such as the ORKLA principles for their ownnewspaper. Senior journalists <strong>of</strong> Kauno Diena reaffirmed in interviewsthat ORKLA is giving them nearly complete editorialindependence. While format, advertising and management wasco-ordinated with the Norwegian mother company, it wasexplained that the journalists were free to write what they wantand are only accountable to their editor-in-chief. It was alsostated that the Norwegian money gave the journalists a higherdegree <strong>of</strong> independence from Lithuanian political influence andeconomic pressure, thus enhancing the freedom to write.COUNTRY REPORTS – LITHUANIA 157
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REPRESENTATIVE ON FREEDOM OF THE ME
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ContentsPrefaceby Freimut Duve 9Int
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6. Conclusions 187AnnexQuestionnair
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advertisement is very insecure, mak
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industrial lobbying groups still di
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1. The Imp
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sidents” had been imprisoned. “
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determined Freedom of</stro
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co-operate fully with the OSCE Repr
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Such independence, however, comes a
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and mirror of the
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30 million rely exclusively on info
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Unchecked, concentration will reduc
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protected, a certain level
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indication of the
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time, as the concept of</st
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It appears, however, that this posi
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1.7 New Threats on the Horizon1.7.1
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owns or controls not only the three
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Target countries sometimes interpre
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independence proposed by the OSCE R
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groups to grow. And there is the in
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areas of Central a
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Directly or indirectly Mr. Silvio B
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Yet this simple notion appears to b
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newspaper firms. Using the argument
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a contribution to democratization a
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tation of this for
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This limitation in no way indicates
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press is ridiculous. Journalists co
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But these progressive aspects <stro
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Nevertheless, the loss of</
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may well be true for journalists fr
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Is there a works council at your ne
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will go to television, this being t
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Economic revenue (%) Fig. 61234510,
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Good relations with the business co
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Further, how can a newspaper, whose
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Service for civil society (%) Fig.
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The Norwegian medi
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Have you ever been put under pressu
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Do you feel threatened in your posi
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4. Number of Title
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5. Country Reports5.1 Germany5.1.1
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Süddeutsche Zeitung (463,000), Lei
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publisher, the Axel Springer Verlag
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A three directional strategy is wha
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5.1.2 Survey ResultsBacked by tradi
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Cross-ownership has also increased
Page 105 and 106: Economic revenue (%) Fig. 61234515,
Page 107 and 108: Service for civil society (%) Fig.
Page 109 and 110: Understandably all German journalis
Page 111 and 112: Do you feel threatened in your posi
Page 113 and 114: As also seen in Germany, the data p
Page 115 and 116: 5.2.2 Survey ResultsFinland compete
Page 117 and 118: Newspaper chains were the logical r
Page 119 and 120: 5.3 United Kingdom5.3.1 Country Rep
Page 121 and 122: • Daily Mail and General Trust: D
Page 123 and 124: Is there a works council at your ne
Page 125 and 126: Economic revenue (%) Fig. 61234510,
Page 127 and 128: Service for civil society (%) Fig.
Page 129 and 130: Do you feel free to voice and write
Page 131: Do you feel threatened in your posi
Page 134 and 135: Newspaper reach (%)All Adults 30.1M
Page 136 and 137: As regards ownership concentration,
Page 138 and 139: Financial BackgroundDespite the pre
Page 140 and 141: 5.4.2 Survey resultsIf Finnish jour
Page 142 and 143: of those mini-comp
Page 144 and 145: for example, is very clear on this
Page 148 and 149: 5.5.2 Survey ResultsAn anonymous It
Page 150 and 151: portfolio. In addition, as democrat
Page 152 and 153: Mr. Berlusconi’s TV advertisement
Page 154 and 155: 5.6 Lithuania5.6.1 Country ReportCa
Page 158 and 159: Lithuania is a small country with a
Page 160 and 161: Another tendency is that newspapers
Page 162 and 163: Only in 2003, the daily newspaper L
Page 166 and 167: October 22 2003 was an historic dat
Page 168 and 169: 5.7.2 Survey ResultsSince the end <
Page 170 and 171: y a mostly anonymous to the general
Page 172 and 173: On a daily, practical basis there
Page 174 and 175: Newspaper reach (%)All Adults 15Sou
Page 176 and 177: so-called “human interest” stor
Page 178 and 179: indicated that Rodipet applies a di
Page 180 and 181: 5.8.2 Survey ResultsAlthough a smal
Page 182 and 183: 12345Objectivity (%) Fig. 57,114,32
Page 184 and 185: Strengthening of d
Page 186 and 187: Do you feel threatened in your posi
Page 188 and 189: emerging CEE countries with regard
Page 190 and 191: - Create in all OSCE participating
Page 193 and 194: Organization for Security and Co-op
Page 195 and 196: 1. In which country are you working
Page 197 and 198: 17. Who defines the editorial line
Page 199 and 200: 29. How would you describe the situ
Page 201 and 202: - This common code of</stro
Page 203 and 204: Personal and business interestsIt i
Page 205: Orkla Media’s
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www.osce.org/fomJohannes von Dohnan
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