marcia chandra

Went to a (semi) interesting lecture at the London School of Economics yesterday: “Opening up ‘Illiberal’ Regimes: do media and communications matter?“

There wasn’t really anything groundbreaking shared, but there were some interesting notes about the role of global citizen media inside and outside of ‘illiberal’ regimes, particularly in relation to Iran and Burma.  Some brief/interesting notes:

• Illiberal regimes different now because of the communication spaces that exist – particularly cyberspace – both inside and outside the regime so that it is not possible to be entirely closed anymore. London, for example, is an important discursive and activist space for illiberal regimes. – Mary Kaldor Co-director, Centre for the Study of Global Governance (CSGG)
• In Iran, there are elections every year – a regular and concrete interaction between civil society and state. In these upcoming elections, it is the first time that the dominant civil society activists – women and students – are successfully using alternative media – websites, mobile phones, sms, facebook – to conduct campaigns and participate in the dominant discourse. - Ziba Mir-Hosseini, SOAS
• Burma was highlighted as an example of having an active civil society, but Dr. Maung Zarni feels that a failure of the activist community has been to focus on the political activities of the regime while not also focusing on improving the role of technology and alternative media in the country. He sees ‘news’ as a symbolic good – similar to manufactured goods – and feels activists need to take an economic approach to establishing it as a good – campaigning for electriticity, internet access, etc. Currently, the military is being educated as ‘future leaders’ of the country meaning that even if the regime were liberalized there would still be a significant knowledge gap within civil society which precludes an assumption that progressive politics would be put in place.  Some quick facts: a total estimated internet connection penetration rate is 1% – making Burma the 2nd least connected in the world; per capita income is USD 220, monthly internet charges is 45 USD; no. of cyber cafes – 500 serving 10% of population in 2 major cities. Here one can talk about how to liberalize regimes, but electricity and economic disparity play a major role in holding back the potential and role of civil society. – Dr Maung Zarni Coordinator of the Burma/Myanmar Research Initiative, CSGG
• The role of citizen media in the recent case of Sri Lanka demonstrates a polemic as media propaganda from both sides of civil society make it difficult to know which side to believe or to figure out what is really going on. - Rita Payne, Chair of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, former program leader for BBC Asia.
• An interesting point brought up in the discussion was that encouraging tourism and the private sector in illiberal regimes is a progressive step as these sectors demand access to internet and media. This may explain why Iranian civil society has had much better access to alternative media as opposed to Burma. It was also noted, however, that alternative media in Iran is also being used by the regime for propoganda, which may explain why these media outlets (such as facebook) do not get shut down.

You can listen to the podcast here (its less than an hour).