The Rise of Soft Censorship

[Commentary] Among the accusations swirling around ousted Gov Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) is one that touches on his relationship with the most important newspaper in his state, the Chicago Tribune. Blagojevich reportedly threatened to withhold state assistance from a deal involving the sale of Wrigley Field, owned by the Tribune Co., if the paper didn't fire members of the editorial board whom he viewed as highly critical of him. Thus Illinois joins a growing list of places across the globe where media-government relations are often ruled by money. Or, more specifically, money used as a tool to manipulate news coverage. This is a serious problem in countries, like the US, where democracies are fragile and there is no culture of strong, independent news media. Many fledgling democracies have no tradition of independent news media, without which it is difficult, if not impossible, to sustain an open political dialogue and transparency in governance. Strengthening independent news media in the developing world should be the cornerstone of any effort to build democracies. (Don Podesta, a former Post editor, is a consultant for the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy. He wrote the center's recent report "Soft Censorship: How Governments Around the Globe Use Money to Manipulate the Media.")