Eva Etzioni-Halevy

Internal Pressures from the Board, from Management and from Peers

This chapter is concerned with internal pressures through intervention by the board, by management and by peers. It shows that — like the ambiguity of norms with respect to external intervention (see Chapter 3) — there is also ambiguity and controversy with respect to internal intervention. In addition, the chapter is designed to answer the question whether broadcasting staff enjoy autonomy or whether, in actual fact, they can do what they like — as long as they do what they are told.

Friction and Conflict: Some Case-Studies

This book’s main thesis is that ambiguities of rules and norms have made it possible for politicians to promote their interests by applying pressures on broadcasting, that these ambiguities have also enabled some broadcasters to promote their interests by resisting pressures, and that this has resulted in friction and conflict. Ambiguities, pressures and resistance, have been documented before, but friction and conflict have only been alluded to intermittently. In this chapter four cases of conflict are described and analysed.

External Pressures through Appointments

The use of appointments is a time-honoured device to achieve political compliance. In several Western democracies it has been — and in some is still — used, in the government bureaucracy. It is no less popular in broadcasting corporations, where it has been applied with respect to the boards, their chairmen and the directors-general.

External Pressures through Direct Intervention

The most obvious political pressures exerted by politicians on broadcasting are attempts at direct intervention through complaints, suggestions and threats. These may be voiced privately or in public, that is, with the back-up of adverse publicity. Another variant of this method is the attempt to influence broadcasters through informal relations and contacts. In some of the countries studied politicians have disclaimed the use of such pressures. In all the countries studied they have actually used at least some of them — with relish.

Resistance to Pressures (I)

The foregoing chapter has been devoted to sources of resistance to pressure that need special mobilisation. In this chapter we look at sources of resistance that are ‘there’, so to speak, although some of them may be enhanced by mobilisation.

External Pressures through Privatisation

Privatisation in broadcasting refers to the introduction of commencai financing (through advertising or private subscriptions) on public broadcasting on the one hand, and the establishment or expansion of private broadcasting (usually in conjunction with technological developments such as satellite and cable broadcasting) side by side with public broadcasting — on the other hand. At the time of writing all the countries studied already had one or the other of these — but none of them had both. The political pressures and struggles involved in attempts to impose the second of the two features — generally against the wishes of the public broadcasting corporations — are the topic of this chapter.

Framework of the Analysis

National broadcasting corporations are instruments of mass media and also bureaucratic-type organisations. In both capacities they are of major importance for the distribution of power in a democracy. My own interest in broadcasting stems from my interest in bureaucracy and its strategic but problematic role in a democratic regime. For this, the role of the national public broadcasting corporation furnishes an apt example.

Ambiguities in Legal Status, Rules and Norms

It is a basic argument of this book that there are ambiguities in the legal frameworks and normative conceptions that govern broadcasting; that these ambiguities have made both political pressures on broadcasting and resistance to such pressures feasible; that they are thus a major factor in the creation of tensions and struggles that surround broadcasting. This chapter describes such ambiguities in the countries under study.

Internal Pressures through Appointments and Promotions

In all the countries studied there were implied pressures from the government on the broadcasting authorities through the staffing of the top supervisory positions and these have been dealt with above. This chapter is about similar implied pressures at lower levels. Originating in the political system — these are conveyed inwards by the boards or managements of the corporations themselves, in the form of politically-influenced appointments and promotions of broadcasting staff. Such appointments then have clear implications for the political content of programmes. For not only is it often (though not always) the case that political appointees will toe the line of their appointers or promoters, but those striving for appointments and promotions can be expected to do so as well. Officially, in all the broadcasting corporations studied, appointments and promotions are based on merit. But how do things work out in practice?

Internal Pressures through Dismissal, Demotion and Displacement

In addition to appointments and promotions, another channel of internal political pressure is that of dismissals and demotions of broadcasting staff. It is a device of political pressure to which staffers are particularly vulnerable personally.