As media ownership passes into many kinds of hands, the sensitivities of corporate and political owners are posing a growing threat to unencumbered reporting
State censorship of mainstream media is now passè. No government, at least in our country, has much stomach for it. There is just too much media around, always looking for something to shriek or tweet about.
But there is a new beast that the squeamish among us will need to confront even as we are still being coy about its existence. As media ownership passes into many kinds of hands, the sensitivities of corporate and political owners are posing a growing threat to unencumbered reporting. It is a recognized phenomenon in other parts of the world, and goes by the nomenclature of private censorship. A working definition: when media owners, publishers and advertisers, among others, exert pressure to shut out critical discussion or the publication of news or manuscripts, these amount to acts of private censorship.
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