12 May 2008

Press Freedom in Mongolia Gaining, but Needs Strengthening

Country’s vibrant democracy merits U.S. grant money, experts say

President Bush shakes hands with traditionally garbed Mongolians during his visit to Mongolia in November 2005. (© AP Images)

By Eric Green
Staff Writer

Washington -- Mongolia should receive credit for its strong democracy even though one aspect of that democracy -- press freedom -- still needs improvement, experts on the country tell America.gov.

Mongolia’s advances in democracy earned the country a $285 million foreign-assistance package from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in October 2007. The MCC, established by the U.S. government in 2004, offers grants and technical assistance to developing countries that score well on 16 indicators of social, political and economic policy performance.

Countries must demonstrate a commitment to press freedom to be eligible for MCC assistance. A free press increases political transparency and “gives citizens an outlet through which they can voice opinions and ideas,” according to the MCC. (See “Mongolia's Democratic Success Earns Millennium Challenge Grant.”)

Barry Lowe, executive director of the London-based Center for Conflict Resolution Journalism, said he agrees with the “partly free” rating about the status of Mongolian freedom of the press given by the independent group Freedom House.

Lowe said that assessment for Mongolia “reflects the improvements made over the past few years” in press freedom and the “efforts by political elites, media owners and journalists to develop better working relations and to reduce points of friction.”

The center is active around the world in training journalists and in assisting international democratic reform. Lowe’s experience in Mongolia includes advising a committee of the country’s parliament on drafting a new national media law.

Politicians in Mongolia, said Lowe, are becoming “less inclined to use bullying tactics against the media outlets and journalists that question their activities, and there's been a modest reduction in the number of defamation cases filed to silence critical journalism.”

However, Mongolia still has “a ways to go” before the country’s press “can hope for an upgrading of its freedom status,” said Lowe.

One of Mongolia’s main problems, Lowe said, “remains the justice system, which makes it easy for politicians and business leaders to scare off critical journalism with the threat of crippling damages from defamation actions.”

Lowe said the Mongolian government “still retains some attitudes” from the era of Communist rule that ended in 1990. Those attitudes, he said, result in restricting journalists’ access to information on government activities.

Mongolian President Nambariin Enkhbayar casts his vote in the 2004 parliamentary elections. (© AP Images)

In addition, Lowe said the Mongolian news industry “remains under-capitalized, which means many journalists have to work for starvation wages that make them susceptible to cash inducements from individuals seeking positive publicity or wanting to kill damaging revelations.”

John Tkacik, a senior research fellow in Asian studies at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said “there is a certain amount of press freedom in Mongolia, but as in many countries the ruling party tends to exert its influence a bit unduly.”

Tkacik said that even though the print media seems to be fairly independent in Mongolia, television news reporting tends to be government-controlled, which “presents certain press freedom problems.”

“NOT AS FREE AS IT COULD BE”

Tom Terry, president of the Eagle Broadcasting Company in Mongolia’s capital of Ulaanbaatar, says “a great deal has changed in the Mongolia media landscape.” Mongolian journalists, he said, are “definitely more free" than they were five years ago.

In fact, said Terry, a U.S. native, “it's actually illegal to interfere with the work of a journalist, though that law is not always obeyed.” What holds back Mongolian journalism, Terry said, “is not the issue of freedom. Rather it is the issue of ethics. Bribery for stories is commonplace and nearly impossible to control.”

Although news in Mongolia is “skewed and certainly not as free as it could be,” said Terry, “most television stations in the country are not government controlled.” However, Terry said, in his experience, Mongolian television journalists “are usually poorly trained, and lack basic skills necessary to understand the fuller dynamics of stories they are often reporting on.”

U.S.-based Freedom House says in a 2008 draft report about Mongolia that freedom of speech and press in the country are protected by law, and the government “generally respects these rights in practice.”

However, the nonpartisan group said media freedom in Mongolia was “compromised somewhat in 2007 owing to ongoing legal harassment and financial difficulties facing journalists.” Freedom House says press freedom in Mongolia has “slipped a bit” in the last several years.

Freedom House said that even though there is no direct government censorship in Mongolia, “journalists complain of indirect forms of censorship such as harassment and intimidation, as well as pressure from the authorities to reveal confidential sources.”

The review comes as Mongolia prepares for parliamentary elections in June. Observers say the elections are crucial in determining whether the formerly communist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party will hold a majority in parliament over the opposition Democratic Party.

For more information, see Press Freedom.