December 2014
Yoshiko Nakamura
The final report of the RIPE@2014 Tokyo Conference held in August 2014 focuses on a session themed “PSM in Asia: issues and opportunities” of the conference Day 1. In this session, panelists from three ASEAN countries, where remarkable economic growth is underway, Thailand that had established a new public service broadcaster, Myanmar that had achieved the liberalization of the media following the transition to civilian rule, and Indonesia where a commercial radio station specializing in news was launched, made presentations. In Thailand, it has been only less than eight years since the establishment of Thai PBS. Amidst the political turmoil and natural disasters, the public service broadcaster is striving to cooperate with civil society based on the cultivation of citizen journalists. Meanwhile, Myanmar does not have public service broadcasting. With the national policy of liberalizing broadcasting, a commercial media group, Shwe Than Lwin Media, serves as a bridge between Myanmar and the international community. Indonesian commercial broadcasters did not have freedom of broadcasting their own news until 1998. The panelist reported there was even a case that commercial stations aired the same news provided by the national broadcaster no less than 14 times a day. Kantor Berita Radio (KBR), which was established by journalists, came into action in order to provide news for the citizens. The reports from these three countries vividly conveyed the audience the progress of democratization as well as the media’s active involvement in it. Meanwhile, it is said that no public service broadcasting can be found in a world with no democracy. Their reports and discussion also revealed problems related to broadcasters’ independence and stable revenue sources, both of which are crucial for public service broadcasters, as well as a question, “What do public service broadcasters exist for?”