November 7, 2002
Last year's Nobel laureate for economics on Thursday said that a free press can help boost economic development and reduce poverty in the third world. Joseph Stiglitz, who is also the former chief economist of the World Bank, pointed to assymetries of information between governments and their citizens, which he compared to the relationship between company managers and shareholders.
This gives governments "discretion to pursue policies that are more in their own interests than in the interests of shareholders," he wrote in "The Right to Tell" -- a book published by the World Bank on freedom of the press and development.
"Transparency is crucial to development," Stiglitz told reporters. "We cannot have functioning democracies without the right to know." A free press provides transparency, as reporters would scrutinize the economic and political spheres and keep the government accountable.
While tight-lipped officials often invoke privacy rights and national security, Stiglitz cited former U.S. Sen. Daniel Moynahan who wrote in his book "Secrecy" that the American government's reluctance to divulge information during the Cold War harmed national security more than it protected it. In the wake of the 1972 Watergate scandal, which brought down the Nixon administration, the Freedom of Information Act was improved to give the public better access to government records.
But in many countries of the developing world, "freedom of the press has been sacrificed at the altar of a government's desire to retain power," wrote Mark Chavunduka, former editor of Zimbabwe's The Standard. Chavunduka was arrested in 1999 by the African nation's armed forces for a story he wrote revealing details of an attempted coup by officers of the national army.
"I was tortured for nine days, not because the story was untrue, but because they wanted me to learn my sources," he wrote. Similar stories are told by journalists from across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Contributors to the World Bank's book, which include journalists, economists and academics, suggested that legal frameworks ensuring that journalists can report unrestrained be put in place in developing countries. "In many countries libel laws are used to shut down the press," Stiglitz said, adding that simply criticizing the government in many cases represented libel in developing nations.
Giving a voice to the poor in those countries where the press mainly represents the establishment's interests would enhance the role of the media in reducing poverty and promoting development, he added. "People with more information are empowered to make better choices," James Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank, said in a foreword to the book. "Free press is not a luxury for just rich countries. It is at the heart of equitable development."
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