Media, Militarization, and Human Rights: Comparing Media Reform in the Philippines and Burma

Abstract

Those working to develop and reform media often draw on human rights discourse, especially in areas of political violence. Yet discourse reflecting globally dominant conceptions of individually based human rights can have detrimental effects. This study illustrates how militarization and this discourse of human rights can be mutually reinforcing, and explores the impact of this phenomenon on media and reform efforts. We examine as case studies the efforts to reform and develop media in the Philippines and Burma (Myanmar), both militarized states with severely constrained political discourse. As a result, media freedom and reform efforts tend to center on the safety and individual rights of journalists rather than on media as a public service, a political and social force accessible to all.

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