Media owners of different countries

By Gunjidmaa Gongor (Mongolia)

Study of the United States Institute (SUSI) program let me learn about media systems and policies of 15 countries represented here. At here were sixteen different countries’ scholars introduce their own countries media system, journalism practice, political culture and media policies including 45 minutes for SUSI members and international students. That time is good discussion, debate, sharing knowledge and strong questions/answers.    

Anand Pradhan, SUSI scholar from India, he tweeted that “Intelligent and Beautiful media scholars from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, Ecuador, Honduras and Bangladesh” and “Smart SUSI Media scholars from Nepal, Ukraine, Romania, Me from India, Mozambique, Lebanon and Uzbekistan in different moods”.

 

It was really useful information to know about abroad countries’ political, social, economic culture and also opened my eyes on the world media development. According to these presentations, most of countries have faced same problems and challenges which are political subsidies, unprofessional journalism, editorial independence, gap between rural and urban media development and lack of media market principles etc.  

Its main reason is politicians huge invest into the media sector with the goal to manipulate the public and to support their pursuit of power. For example, Chilean media is a huge concentration – currently two media groups are main role playing in their media market. Zambian newspapers mixed private and state owned – TV stations all are owned by state. In 2012, the first private TV station was launched in Zimbabwe.  

SUSI scholar Yuri Zaliznyak reports that media ownership in Ukraine is concentrating around one big family and is primarily serving the interests of oligarchs. Therefore “the most of Romanian media is politically connected and media owners often run for office” said Dr. Antonio Momoc from Romania.    

“Malaysian mainstream media is nothing but mouthpiece of government” reports her presentation, scholar Sharon Wilson from Malaysia.    

 In my country, one of the biggest challenges in media market is the plethora of media outlets on such a small market can be explained by the fact that the majority of Mongolian media survives on political subsides rather than on market revenues. Around 70-80 percent of newspapers and televisions are owned by high ranking politicians. Another example is among the media, “gatekeeper contracts” are important sources of media revenue. The goal of the contract ensures that the media doesn’t publish about it when critical stories and controversial issues about any interest organizations.

Today we are all. We have a brain power and same interest to change the current media challenges. This is a good opportunity of the SUSI scholarship program.

Go head to professional journalism and good governance. We can do that together.