Reading and answer questions 7 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reading and answer questions 7 - Assignment Example In the developing world, the media has been instrumental in channeling the pervasive social and political disparities, as seen in the Indonesian case. The ban of press influence in the 1990s was a political move directed towards incapacitating the medias role in addressing the formidable autocratic system that was paralyzing the sectors of the economy (49). The media was a conduit addressing massive corruption, impunity, and aggression to the media apparatus by the system, in an effort to suppress their growing authority. The importance of press goes beyond a conduit of information or a catalyst for action (54). The media retains a central role in preserving and writing history; in the contemporary world, the journalists are faced with channeling information that has led to revolutions that have corrected social and political ills, as seen in Indonesia after the ban on Tempo newspaper (57). The press is a particular kind of history agent: it has led to several special moments in Malaysia, the Arab world (the recent Arab Revolution), and the political tectonic shifts in the U.K. (Secessionist Politics) that has revolutionized modern politics. Currently, the historical role has been fossilized in the names of newspapers like Times Newspapers, Voice of People, and People’s Thought, among many other globally (58). The juxtaposition of the Danish Cartoon and the Indonesian press evolution sprouts several questions about the authority of the press, and whether it is morally justifiable for the government to stem its operations. The Danish cartoon was seen as an insult to the Islamic religion, and in effect spawned widespread protests among the believers. However, the cartoonist and the media house had a different opinion: the imagery was a manifestation of freedom of expression (59). The scene breeds the question: why was the media defense so evasive and persuasive to the European audience and not others? The imagery