Media control – Dominance not good for democracy

As communications become more internationalised, personal and unfettered it may seem anachronistic to suggest we need to pay more attention to our domestic media, who owns and controls it.

A new concentration of ownership suggests we need to consider how that influence is applied and how that unaccountable power might be used to deflect attention from uncomfortable truths, how it might be used to silence valid criticism or even objective commentary.

It is difficult to get this issue on a decisive agenda but recent developments should persuade even those who dismiss it as one motivated by commercial rivalries or the vanities so splendidly active in the fourth estate that we need to confront the threat latent in any potential media domination.