Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad
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Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

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THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 133 that is imposed upon national policies and across the developing world with only a few exceptions in the degree of liberalization. At the national level, and in particular in countries with weak infrastructure such as the African continent, the pressure for privatization is felt more strongly. First, as Audenhove et al. argue, the very ‘quality’ of national companies and infrastructure – and especially telecommunications – does not correspond to investors’ criteria, which is something that makes the position of negotiation of even countries such as South Africa, with probably the best telecoms in the continent, problematic. At the time of writing, the best rate of Internet use in the African continent belongs to the Seychelles with nearly 15 per cent of Internet use and South Africa with 7 per cent (ITU 2005) compared to the USA with 55 per cent and Australia with 56 per cent (ITU 2005). Figure 5.6 provides a comparative listing of the situation in African countries in 2003 regarding Internet use and availability of PCs. As the reader will immediately become aware, even the wealthiest economies are far behind any conceivable approximation to the rates and pace of Internet access and ICT use of the post-industrialized world. Within the African context, at the lowest end of the scale, Ethiopia, Niger, the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone are reporting between 10 and 14 Internet users per 10,000 inhabitants while countries like Egypt, Botswana and Tunisia have between 2 and 4 personal computers per 100 people. Many African nations continue to negotiate crippling debts which reduce state autonomy to intervene through social policy as well as the legacies of colonial division that have fostered civil war, genocide and discrimination. Under external pressures, these governments have used privatization of their national sectors as a ‘symbolic’ gesture, a ‘positive signal to private local and foreign investors’ (Nulens and Van Audenhove 1999: 397–8). They have also tried to reduce other debts through the sale of what effectively is or has been regarded as national or public property. As we have argued previously, telecommunications and other infrastructural industries like air transportation have been at the centre of this liberalization wave because of their role in allowing access to markets and, in particular, linking production to distribution sites in the North. Any policy for ‘development’ should take into account the voices of these nation-states and their citizens. Instead, global policies are drafted within closed consultative contexts and limited scope. Writing about the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT), a policy with the principal aim to expand the domain of e-commerce, Shade argues that this, as do other top-down policies, adheres to the modernization paradigm. She notes ‘the legitimization of global capitalism as a natural and vaunted state of affairs needs to be questioned, particularly when the discourse of the

134 MEDIA POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION Internet use per 100 inhabitants PCs per 100 inhabitants 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi C. Verde C.d'Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Ghana Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Namibia Senegal Seychelles South Africa Sudan Tanzania Tunisia Zambia Zimbabwe Figure 5.4 Comparative data on African countries in Internet and PC use; latest data 2003 Source: adapted from ITU (2005). DOT Force posits that citizenship and human development entails participating in a global commercial system’ (Shade 2003: 118). The pressure for privatization is not only relevant to the developing world, however, but also to smaller economies in Europe and across the privileged North, economies which are more vulnerable to international global trade and the negotiating power of transnational telecommunications and content-provider giants. Greece and Portugal, as small EU countries, have also followed the liberalization ‘trend’, albeit in a more gradual manner than the stronger economies of Germany and the UK. Greece finds itself under pressure to privatize vital sectors of geopolitical significance for the country, such as electricity and water, not only from the EU but also from international organizations. The wide-scale pressure against public resources is profound. OECD (2001) advises the breaking up of national sectors such as water into a network of companies. Experience from other countries such as the UK, however, has shown that the effects of such privatization are not necessarily positive, as vital ‘backbone’ sectors, railways, electricity and water services have witnessed a decline in service quality while prices in some cases have not followed the predicted fall. 8 Responding to what World Bank insiders themselves prescribed in the mid-1990s as the ‘Post-Washington Consensus’ (Stigltiz 1998), the Bank increasingly focuses on social issues despite the fact that its mandate is

134 MEDIA POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION<br />

Internet use per 100 inhabitants<br />

PCs per 100 inhabitants<br />

30<br />

25<br />

20<br />

15<br />

10<br />

5<br />

0<br />

Algeria<br />

Angola<br />

Benin<br />

Botswana<br />

Burkina Faso<br />

Burundi<br />

C. Verde<br />

C.d'Ivoire<br />

Djibouti<br />

Egypt<br />

Ethiopia<br />

Gabon<br />

Gambia<br />

Ghana<br />

Malawi<br />

Mali<br />

Mauritania<br />

Mauritius<br />

Namibia<br />

Senegal<br />

Seychelles<br />

South Africa<br />

Sudan<br />

Tanzania<br />

Tunisia<br />

Zambia<br />

Zimbabwe<br />

Figure 5.4 Comparative data on African countries in Internet <strong>and</strong> PC use;<br />

latest data 2003<br />

Source: adapted from ITU (2005).<br />

DOT Force posits that citizenship <strong>and</strong> human development entails participating<br />

in a global commercial system’ (Shade 2003: 118).<br />

The pressure for privatization is not only relevant to the developing<br />

world, however, but also to smaller economies in Europe <strong>and</strong> across the<br />

privileged North, economies which are more vulnerable to international<br />

global trade <strong>and</strong> the negotiating power of transnational telecommunications<br />

<strong>and</strong> content-provider giants. Greece <strong>and</strong> Portugal, as small EU<br />

countries, have also followed the liberalization ‘trend’, albeit in a more<br />

gradual manner than the stronger economies of Germany <strong>and</strong> the UK.<br />

Greece finds itself under pressure to privatize vital sectors of geopolitical<br />

significance for the country, such as electricity <strong>and</strong> water, not only<br />

from the EU but also from international organizations. The wide-scale<br />

pressure against public resources is profound. OECD (2001) advises the<br />

breaking up of national sectors such as water into a network of companies.<br />

Experience from other countries such as the UK, however, has<br />

shown that the effects of such privatization are not necessarily positive,<br />

as vital ‘backbone’ sectors, railways, electricity <strong>and</strong> water services have<br />

witnessed a decline in service quality while prices in some cases have not<br />

followed the predicted fall. 8<br />

Responding to what World Bank insiders themselves prescribed in the<br />

mid-1990s as the ‘Post-Washington Consensus’ (Stigltiz 1998), the Bank<br />

increasingly focuses on social issues despite the fact that its m<strong>and</strong>ate is

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