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Mekong Media Makeover

State-controlled media are becoming more lively in an increasingly market-oriented region

Taste matters Programs with poor ratings get the ax on China Central Television
Photo by AFP

Not so long ago, adjectives like “staid” and “predictable” were used to describe the state-controlled media of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), and Viet Nam.

But as these countries—part of the Greater Mekong Subregion that also includes Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand— have significantly shifted toward more market-oriented economies over the past decade, so have the media reflected such changes.

Moves toward closer integration, interconnecting economic corridors, and an increased flow of people and goods across borders have increased connectivity to the outside world. Cable television and the internet have raised awareness of other lifestyles—as well as expectations.

Although media continue to be under government control, such changes are evident not only in a proliferating mainstream media but also in increasing blogging and “citizen journalism.”

The explosion in the number of media products—in print, television, and radio— means governments can no longer afford to fund all of them. This results in heavier reliance on advertising, which raises the need to increase circulation, which in turn impacts on content, allowing journalists to develop their craft. As circulations—and revenues—have risen, so has media clout.

The PRC had 42 newspapers in 1968. A few years ago, one tally estimated more than 2,200 newspapers and 9,000 magazines.

In broadcasting, state-run China Central Television (CCTV) has more than doubled the number of stations from 7 in 1995 to 18 today. “There’s too much to read and watch,” says Zhu Yan, news editor of the CCTV English channel. “When you have a booming economy, the audiences’ demand for information is unfathomable.”

Public taste is now a major determinant of a newspaper’s reach. In the PRC, while new and more daring newspapers, especially those farther away from Beijing, have soared in popularity, the Communist Party’s organ, People’s Daily, drastically fell in circulation. Even on CCTV, programs with poor ratings get the ax.

In the Lao PDR, the government covers the staff of media organizations but the organizations have to look to the private sector to fund other expenses. The role of the private sector, which can deliver more efficiently and at lower cost, has increased within a state-controlled media environment. In recent years, private companies have been producing entertainment programs and buying airtime on government TV channels. International agencies also work with private production houses to produce material aired on Lao TV.

The Lao PDR used to have only one channel, Lao National TV, which began in 1983 and was limited to 3 hours a day. Now there is another station, the popular entertainment-based Lao Star Channel.

“In the past, media worked based upon the government’s policy and did not care how much it lost or earned, because all production costs were subsidized by the government,” recalls a senior Lao journalist. Now it is quite different.

“Economic opening up has created more openness in the media environment,” says Vannaphone Sitthirath, a journalist who worked for Lao National TV for 6 years and codirected a series on social issues with younger audiences. “Audiences complain about the old programs in terms of visualization and content,” she says.

Ordinary Lao homes today have access to cable television. Middle-class families can choose from more than 30 cable channels, watching shows uncensored.

Such exposure and wider access to overseas news have produced more critical and probing reporting, says a senior Lao journalist. This is as true of radio as of print. Since November 2007, the late-night “Talk of the News” program discusses current issues and includes, for the first time in the Lao PDR, a callback feature that allows listeners to call in at the end of the program, raising issues from bad roads to impolite traffic cops.

In Viet Nam, the media have mushroomed. There are 713 publications today with a combined circulation of 600 million, according to government estimates. This compares with 563 publications 5 years earlier.

In Viet Nam, too, the media have become more public oriented, says one Vietnamese journalist, attributing this to more international integration and globalization.

Mushrooming Media Stories exposing corruption are in line with government priorities in Viet Nam
Photo by AFP

Also in Viet Nam, the internet has created a forum for news, discussions, and blogs not seen or heard in the official media. “Citizen journalism has opened another door for all sorts of people, particularly local journalists and novelists, to criticize the government, which they are not allowed to do in the public media,” says the Vietnamese journalist, who is studying overseas. “Bloggers dare to speak out on what they are unhappy about—issues like democracy, the (one-party) political system, freedom of speech, or government decisions and regulations on the economy.”

The result is that stories exposing corruption or other scandals, though these are in line with the government’s priorities, have appeared.

In the PRC, all media are affiliated with some state organization but this does not restrict critical material. For instance, the newspaper Global Times has acquired a reputation for serious material, has become popular, and has attracted a lot of advertisements—but it is affiliated with the People’s Daily.

In Viet Nam, there is no private ownership of the media. The more hard-hitting newspapers like Thanh Nien or Tuoi Tre are often assumed to be privately owned, but are owned by the city government’s Youth Union or similar organizations under the Communist Party. In the Lao PDR, all media are under the state.

The state-owned media have allowed more leeway for discussing topics that were once considered taboo, such as HIV/AIDS and sex-related issues.

In the PRC, journalists have written about environmental pollution—once a no-no— and corruption in the securities market. One paper questioned the efficacy of the government’s use of vaccination in its campaign against avian flu, which earned the ire of health officials.

In Viet Nam, journalists aired a story on the smuggling of chickens at the border with the PRC. In the Lao PDR, the media have reported on young women getting pregnant before marriage.

All this is far from saying that the media have the same freedom for critical reporting as in the West.

Taboo topics, particularly relating to political leadership, still prevail. Mekong journalists know they cannot delve into matters concerning the Communist Party. Governments have intervened when they believe media have crossed the line. But this has also happened in supposedly freer countries like Thailand, notes Rosalia Sciortino, a professor who teaches on Mekong development issues. However, she says, discussion on social and development issues has greatly increased.

There is even concern that the media are heading too much toward consumerism and commercialization instead of focusing on serious issues such as poverty.

“I’m afraid that too much economic pressure (through advertising) will reduce the press’ credibility just like political pressure,” says Zhu Yan.

But Lao journalist Vannaphone says, “Commercial stuff is good if you know how to manage it and use it to improve other areas.” In the Lao PDR, she says, many problems and issues—such as unemployment, child abuse, domestic violence, a poor educational system—are waiting to be written about and the media should not worry too much about government influence. “I wouldn’t be able to do anything if I were concerned about political pressure,” she says.

A Vietnamese journalist says she was warned that she would be frustrated after getting a master’s degree overseas. But this is not the case. Vietnamese would like to be able to write more freely about religion or politics, she says. “But there is also a wide range of other issues that needs to be exposed in media—poverty, the effects of natural calamities, and disease are all pressing issues for my people.”

Such nuanced shifts in the media picture in the PRC, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam do not often make the news outside. For one thing, media are usually gauged through the headline-grabbing yardstick of freedom ratings of western watchdog groups. In addition, some of the best reporting in the Mekong countries is in the local language, which outsiders may not easily understand. Despite restrictions on some areas of political reporting, journalists are increasingly writing on important issues and are making a difference in their societies. •