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Bourgeois media and totalitarian dictatorships

By: F. Kreisel; Feb 16, 1995

The working class must take note of the friendly relationship between the international media tycoons and the totalitarian dictatorships in the so called "developing world". A revealing article in the London "Financial Times" for Feb. 13th, 1995 sheds new light on the true position of these supposed defenders of the "free press" in the "free world". In the article entitled "Murdoch cultivates his Asian contacts" the following story is related:

In 1993 at a London press conference Mr. Murdoch proclaimed his commitment to the ideals of freedom of the press and to the fight against the Orwellian "Big Brother":

"We are almost a decade beyond Orwell's fateful date (the book "1984") and he has been proved wrong. Advances in the technology of telecommunication have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere"

The recent actions of Mr. Murdoch, alas, belie this high-minded rhetoric. As the article relates,

"In April 1994 Star TV (Murdoch's Asian satellite TV service) had dropped BBC World Service Television; its news and current affairs programmes had infuriated Beijing".

Now, Mr Murdoch provides even better service for his dictator clients.

"Mr. Murdoch has been indefatigable in his efforts to persuade regional power elites that he poses no threat to their political well-being. In pursuit of these aims, Mr Murdoch has been offering China and other countries anxious about the satellite "threat" access to what is known as a "smart card" technology that would enable them to filter out unacceptable programming".

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian dictator acclaimed Mr Murdoch's censor-friendly technology:

"He [Mr Murdoch] assured me that we could switch the programmes on and off. If we don't like a programme we can switch it off", — beamed the satisfied dictator.

Workers throughout the world must take notice of the actions of the big business media to preserve and safeguard the power of the old dictators, the Deng Xiaopings, the Dr. Mohamads and the Lee Kwan Yees. However, the advanced capitalist countries are exhibiting similar conditions of increasing class polarization, spread of poverty and vast social degradation. It is clear that the same methods of the "Big Lie", the "doublespeak" and the "smart card" technology will be applied to preserve the bourgeois rule in the so-called Western "democracies".