Media bias in South Asia
From ArticleWorld
The media bias in south Asia is under constant observation owing to many varied reasons, among them, geo-political, historical, economic, and cultural are the top agendas. As such, recent independence from colonial rule, the influence of developed world and their affinity towards developing economies play a vital role in the projections that these nations choose to be exhibited. The opening up of economies albeit under duress of the industrial nations seeking an entry into the vast potential markets have also contributed in deciding the issues that need to be suppressed and others that the governments seek to throw light upon.
Reasons of media bias
Thus the media in south Asia has always been of interest to some analysts. Media bias can be seen being observed in the print media, television as well as academic field. Very often, the leaning of the ruling political parties of the nations has influenced the tone of the information being allowed to the outside world.
All south Asian nations have basically the same age old cultural set up and are bound by a similar common thread. The invasions over centuries have affected the nations to the same degree in form and scale. There are certain amounts of religious, cultural and economic overtones to be observed to suit the priorities of the political outfit in power.
Examples
- Bangladesh: media is always vacillating between pro-Pakistan. and an anti- India stands.
- Sri Lanka: the Sri Lankan government is believed to be curbing the press over ethnical issues.
- India: claims of distortion of historical facts recorded or otherwise have always found their way into the media and school text-books. The one-upmanship syndrome between the rightists and leftists has always varied the shade of media language and information.
- Pakistan: media here is India-centric or rather abhorring Indian point of view. It’s noteworthy that Indian films too have been banned from being screened in Pakistan.