Editorial independence, licence

Governments can no longer control the dissemination of information to their citizens says Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Information and Culture. "The public will no longer accept media that are seen as being Government-controlled and which seek to provide them with a limited and partial view of events", Sheikh Abdullah said in his key note speech before the Arab Media Forum, organised by the Dubai Press Club.

The following is the full text of Sheikh Abdullah's speech:

Your excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to welcome you to the inauguration of this important media forum. The evolution of the mass media is a topic of very considerable concern and interest to me, and I shall follow with interest the results of your discussions.

I wish today to address the subject of 'Government information,' within the framework of the development of the media industry. There is, I believe, a tendency to treat this subject in a grossly over-simplified way.

At a simple level, there appears to be broad agreement that formal government ownership and control of the organs of the mass media is increasingly outdated. In a world where information can cross borders so swiftly, and so effectively, through the internet, as well as through radio and television satellite services, governments can no longer control the dissemination of information to their citizens.

The public will no longer accept media that are seen as being government-controlled and which seek to provide them with a limited and partial view of events. Out of the globalisation of technology has come the globalisation of information. This means that news has the ability to penetrate everywhere. It cannot be prevented. The choice for the government media, therefore, is often that of either privatisation or closure, and the future is clearly for the privately-owned media.

At the same time, even if we all wish to see the privately-owned media forming the greater part of the information industry, we should recognise that there is a difference between what we want, and what can be achieved. Even in Europe and the United States, for example, there are media outlets owned by government, even if they are not formally controlled. The BBC and the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service are two such examples. These bodies are free, to some extent at least, from commercial pressures, and, partly as a result, are widely recognised for the quality of their output.

Furthermore, we must recognise that the privately-owned media requires very substantial investment. Television organisations like CBS in the United States or NHK in Japan spend billions of dollars every year. It is impractical to expect such funding to be available from the private sector in the developing world, however much we might wish it to occur. The process of transformation from government to private ownership is, on any case, not a simple task.

Here in the United Arab Emirates, the Government has relinquished formal control over the country's largest media group, Emirates Media Incorporated, which now enjoys editorial and administrative independence. It remains to some extent dependent, however, on Government funding, while ownership is still officially vested in the Government. We look forward to seeing the group thriving on the new environment of the commercial marketplace, but there are still challenges to be addressed.

EMI now has an administrative structure that is based upon transparency, effectiveness and flexibility, so that it can respond promptly to unfolding events. This has permitted it to move towards privatisation and to rely increasingly upon the revenues it raises itself. Within this context, it is making major investment in assets, has commenced the leasing of some of its production equipment and is also selling part of its output in the private market. This development has led to EMI becoming increasingly attractive as an employer, with highly qualified personnel competing for jobs with the corporation because of the excellent opportunities it offers.

One important result is that it has increased the number of the UAE citizens that it employs. A focus on cost-effectiveness has permitted EMI to commence 24 hour production from its own resources, this, in turn, allowing it to replace much of the programming formerly bought from outside by its own product.

One can see, therefore, that EMI is clearly on the right path as a Government organisation which is, at the same time, governed by market forces. It has now been able to identify new sources of finance. Over the course of past two years, for example, its advertising revenue has been equivalent to 40 per cent of its budget. The process of re-organisation now underway is based on efficiency and competence through a focus on training and providing of access to new technology. EMI has, therefore, moved away from many of the traditional concepts of media, in particular Government media, which had become inward-looking and stagnant. It has recognised that there was a wide margin of press freedom and that was there to be used. All that was required to be able to compete with the private sector was to begin using it.

The media needs to stand on its own two feet in an economic sense, to be self-sufficient in financial terms, surviving and thriving because of the excellence of its product. Those media institutions which fail to do this will go to the wall. And so they should. They will fail because they will not succeed in attracting the revenues from advertising that are today such an essential part of the information industry. And yet, success in achieving financial independence brings other, different pressures.

Sales of newspapers and subscription fees for television stations can never be enough to pay all of the costs that successful media outlets incur. The balance will always be made up by advertising revenue and other forms of sponsorship, and these have a huge impact on editorial independence, even if it is often largely concealed and rarely acknowledged.

Governments also play a part in the generation of advertising revenue, through major state-owned corporations. In the UAE however, it has been noted that such bodies provide only a small and declining percentage of the advertising revenues of the Emirates Media Incorporated.

I would ask you to consider, therefore, the following questions. Is it necessarily beneficial for the freedom of information if dependence on an acknowledged Government source of finance is replaced by dependence on revenues from other, more concealed sources? And, as a corollary, if the organs of the media are financially viable as independent institutions, how can one ensure that their editorial independence is preserved?

There is another issue to consider. The amount of advertising revenue attracted by media institutions is directly related to the audience that they are able to offer to the advertiser. Often, this is judged primarily on numbers. The newspaper or television station with the largest number of readers or viewers will obtain the largest slice of the advertising pie. In order to do this, the media proprietors, and their financial controllers, will often seek to go "downmarket," to attract a greater share of the audience.

In editorial terms, this results in a trivialisation of