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Week of August 22, 2016

Digital uncertainty increases, money more than audience
global trends speeding on

Digital doubt clouds the media sphere where that digital dividend once shown bright. Radio broadcasters, in particular, have peered down that tunnel hoping to see a light that isn’t Spotify careening past them. Digital platforms aren’t what they were a decade ago.

“Radio has always been dynamic,” said Swiss media regulator OFCOM deputy director Roberta Cattaneo to the annual Swiss Radio Day in Zürich this past week, quoted by werbewoche.ch (August 25). Her caveat was clear: “But uncertainty will increase in the coming years.” Digital transition is coming, but slowly.

Radio, more loosely defined than ever, is more digital than analogue in Switzerland. Out of every 100 daily minutes of listening, 53 are now digital, either DAB+ or online, reported market researcher GfK Switzerland, an 8% increase year on year. Alas it’s older listeners making the switch from FM to DAB+. Those darned young people are, everybody knows, online. And, too, 70% of radio listening in automobiles is from the FM platform. (See more about digital radio here)

“OFCOM cannot affect global trends,” said Ms Cattaneo. Next year the media regulator will assess the looming possibility of transitioning away from the FM platform between 2020 and 2025. With that in mind, private-sector broadcasters are expanding their digital portfolios. Digital multiplex costs have dropped considerably.

Switzerland’s media market is relatively small and a certain set of radio broadcasters rely on the public service license fee; public broadcaster SSR-SRG, obviously, but also about half of the country’s privately owned radio stations. Therein lies another uncertainty, noted Ms Cattaneo, as popular initiatives to curtail or even abolish the license fee remain in the legislative pipeline.

No let-up in media purges
special removals

The purge of media outlets with dissenting views in Turkey is clear. Authorities continue to shutter media outlets and harass editors, reporters and columnists. This past week the Istanbul Chief Prosecutors office ordered police to roundup and collect every copy – a “special removal” - of tiny socialist-leaning weekly newspaper Atilim, which had published an insert from Ozgür Gündem, the Kurdish daily ordered closed two weeks earlier, reported evrensel.net (August 23). (See more about media in Turkey here)

Ozgür Gündem was shuttered for “regularly making PKK terrorist organization propaganda and serving as a publishing organ for an armed terrorist organization,” said the order from an Istanbul district court, quoted by bianet.org (August 23). The entire staff was detained for questioning with editor-in-chief Zana Kaya and managing editor Inan Kizilkaya arrested for “being a member” of an illegal organization and interred at Istanbul’s Metris Prison. The PKK – Kurdistan Worker’s Party – has been designated a terrorist organization by several international bodies, including NATO and the European Union, and several countries, including Turkey and the United States. It’s stated aims include establishing an independent Kurdish homeland.

The Committee to Protect Journalists website – www.cpj.org - offers a bone-chilling running commentary on the plight media workers and outlets in Turkey.

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