Free flow of media helpful in conflicts

By Karyn Scherer

The media has a role to play in encouraging democracy in reporting conflicts such as East Timor, says Australian media executive Cameron O'Reilly.

He told Apec business leaders in Auckland that while increasing access to information was not a panacea for the world's ills, it helped focus international attention on them, "creating the constituency for resolution."

Mr O'Reilly, who is chairman of New Zealand printer and publisher Wilson & Horton, and who heads Australian media group APN News and Media, was a last-minute replacement for Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed at a Saturday lunch.

While acknowledging that all businesses would be radically affected by the information age, he said newspapers would endure because they were trusted, easy to use, inexpensive, portable, disposable, tangible and archival.

"Rather than seeing these new media as threats to the core of their existing business, publishers should see them as opportunities to distribute their content to the widest possible audience."

More nations should allow foreign investment in the media.

"While there are obvious fears that an opening up of foreign media ownership rules could potentially undermine other national priorities, the long-term costs of having a protected, stagnant, and ultimately uncompetitive media will retard these countries' growth in the information age."