We are busy preparing the AIBs (international media excellence awards) with its People Choice category for the best TV coverage of “Democracy Uprisings”, as well producing an article, to be published in the next edition of our magazine The Channel, on “Democracy Uprisings and Social Media”, detailing how social media has been used alongside and in place of traditional broadcasting in the Arab Spring and other popular movements.
So it is sometimes easy to be carried away with the idea that the progress towards democracy, supported by broadcasting in all its forms from radio stations to videos on mobile phones, is unstoppable and continual. But the publication by Freedom House of “Freedom in the World 2011: The Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy”, makes sobering reading as it reports on the fifth consecutive year of a decline in world freedom and states that “… the democratic community is not rising to the challenge”.
At the AIB, we add our voice to the fight for the freedom and independence of broadcasters everywhere to report without fear. We salute those organisations who take risks to bring the world news from difficult environments and especially the reporters who often put their lives on the line to report the reality in areas of conflict and repression. Unfortunately, all too often we have to pay tribute to those who are killed or wounded while doing their jobs.
We believe that the broadcasting community has continually risen to the challenge of supporting freedom by struggling to report the facts whatever the situation and that it must work hard to continue to do so. We welcome the many ordinary people who, while taking part in protests, are prepared to take the additional risk of sending out details of what they are experiencing and seeing, which is a vital help to professional broadcasters as they work to report truthfully and analyse carefully.