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International Forum >> The Democracy Forum for East Asia>> "The Role of the Media in Fighting Corruption: Perspectives from Asia and Beyond"
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Introduction
Session I: The Current State of Media Reporting on Corruption in Asia Session II: The Institutional and Legal Environment Session III: Forging Partnerships in the Fight Against Corruption Session IV: Promoting More Effective Media Coverage Agenda Participants |
Introduction
The conference on "The Role of the Media in Fighting Corruption: Perspectives from Asia and Beyond," held in Seoul, South Korea, on July 26-27, 2002, was the seventh meeting (and sixth working conference) sponsored by the Democracy Forum for East Asia, a collaborative program of the Sejong Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The Democracy Forum was established in November 1998 to promote joint nongovernmental efforts to encourage democracy in East Asia. The inaugural conference was held in July 1999 in Seoul; it was followed by five working conferences in Seoul and Bangkok between 1999 and 2002. The sixth working conference focused on the role of the mass media in exposing and fighting corruption and in promoting greater transparency and accountability in governance. Conference participants included print and broadcast journalists, editors, and publishers; public prosecutors; representatives of anticorruption commissions and of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and legal and academic experts on democracy and the media. Asian participants from China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand were joined by others from Argentina, Australia, Peru, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In his welcoming remarks to conference participants, Jong-Chun Baek, president of the Sejong Institute, noted that corruption was a significant problem not only in Asia but in many countries worldwide. He hoped that this gathering of experts from both established and developing democracies "will give us a great opportunity to learn from each other" how to fight corruption in its many forms. Mr. Baek cautioned, however, that corruption probably will never be eliminated. The best one can hope for is to control and limit its worst effects. Larry Diamond, codirector of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, described official corruption as one of the most serious threats to democratic governance. In many countries, particularly in new democracies, citizens tell opinion researchers that corruption is one of their biggest concerns. The widespread belief that public officials use their offices for personal enrichment and that business firms use political connections to secure favors from government agencies leads to high levels of voter cynicism and undermines support for needed reforms. In addition to the damage it does to the political system, corruption also imposes huge hidden costs on the economy and contributes to industrial accidents, environmental pollution, and other problems. "We therefore need to expose not only individual acts of corruption but also the entire system in which corruption flourishes," Mr. Diamond asserted. "And we need to educate the public through civic education." But while the mass media are essential to the process of civic education, the media themselves are sometimes a part of the problem. Mr. Diamond hoped that the conference would thus focus not only on how the media expose corruption but also on how the media can improve their own standards of professionalism. |
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