Public Domain Heroes: The Press Guardian #6
David Michael Newstead | The Philosophy of Shaving
The documents Colonel Danor provided were illuminating to the reporters at the Daily Review-Express. But when combined with public records and other interviews, they painted a damning portrait of the Krebtz regime. In a conference room with no windows, key staffers stood around their largest bulletin board festooned with notes, connections, and leads, looking more like police investigation than run-of-the-mill journalism. Nathan, Jack, Abner, Mort, and Margaret were in attendance. For weeks now, they had been trying to build a timeline of the president’s secret war against the opposition and against the press. At stake were the country’s major news outlets: three television networks, five radio stations, and six newspapers. And besides targeted attacks like the one that killed their editor-in-chief, the evidence was becoming incontrovertible. Their research revealed a clear, coordinated campaign to subvert all independent media in Yaharza.
“Let’s go over this again…” Cynthia Blake said, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and gesturing to the board with the other, “Three years ago, Krebtz is elected president. Although it went underneath everyone’s radar at the time, he takes action immediately, utilizing an early retirement program to gain complete control over an obscure government agency, the Regulatory Communications Authority or RCA. Now packed with loyalists, Krebtz repurposes the RCA to pressure news organizations or, alternatively, to weaken them so much that they are bought out by wealthy friends of the regime. We’ve learned that two years ago, the dismantling of Vidicom was secretly orchestrated by the RCA that then went on to facilitate the sale of the conglomerate’s two main radio stations to friends of the regime. Late last year, RCA initiated the ‘reorganization’ of Public One Television and Public One Radio, which were actually veiled purges.”
Nathan Darms chimed in, “What was publicized then was the significant funding increase for public broadcasting, but we only found out about the extreme changes to editorial policy through whistleblower interviews.”
Cynthia continued, “Six months ago, the independent news website, the Reporting Collective, was permanently shutdown for supposed tax violations, again orchestrated by the RCA. Now, we have every indication that the regime is preparing to move against Integrated Telecommunications, Inc., which in one fell swoop would give them control over Enterprise News TV, Capital Radio, and the National City Bulletin newspaper, along with Integrated’s book publishing and movie divisions.”
“The biggest media company in the country would become a propaganda studio overnight,” Perry said.
Nathan interjected, “Integrated Telecomm is also majority stakeholder in the country’s largest internet and cellular provider.”
“Correct!” Cynthia said, “So the takeover would likely expose private messages the government hasn’t already obtained and grant them the ability to literally switch off the internet nationwide whenever they choose to.”
“We’ve also identified some regional aspects to their campaign,” Nathan said, motioning to a map on the bulletin board.
“What do you mean?” Perry asked, his eyes baggy from lack of sleep.
“Currently, the New National Dream doesn’t hold the mayor’s office in the capital yet or in Yahel City, but two years ago they won the governorship in Yabarma province and about six months later the Rural Times-Tribune was sold there at bargain prices for unexplained reasons to a holding company that we now believe to be a front for friends of the regime,” Nathan explained.
“The Rural Times-Tribune is one thing,” Perry replied, “But if Integrated Telecomm falls, then a single television channel and two small newspapers will be the only real journalism left in a nation of 15 million people!”
“Unfortunately, it’s related,” Cynthia said, “RCA is just the government arm of this attack. Blackbox Investment Holdings keeps showing up in the records whenever a news organization is sold off, but we know almost nothing about the company, its owners, anything, except that the attorney who signed its official incorporation documents is dead.”
Nathan started to pass around graphic crime scene photos, “Supposedly, he was killed in a mugging around the same time that Richard died.”
“Yes, this year’s crime wave was incredibly specific,” Perry added sarcastically.
Cynthia continued, “President Krebtz is three years into a six-year term. The big picture here is everything we’re looking at is just laying the groundwork for his reelection. Integrated Telecomm is heavily involved with the two major parties and the New National Dream has practically declared war on it. The chocolate manufacturing heiress who singlehandedly finances the Yaharzan Green Party is on trial for tax evasion right now. The regime is trying to cripple its opponents and silence media outlets that report on it.”
“So where does that leave us?” Perry asked her as he sipped his fifth cup of tea that day.
Cynthia paused, staring off into space. She didn’t answer.
Independent Media is Under Threat in Yaharza
By Perry Chase | The Daily Review-Express
Thirty years ago, Yaharzan democracy was a marketplace of ideas, diverse perspectives, and fiercely independent voices. One legacy of our country’s dissident movement and years of protests against the dictatorship was a lasting, popular commitment to the value of journalism. For a time, in fact, every city had its own local paper, even relatively small ones. Independent radio flourished and citizens could easily access the kind of information that the old regime regularly denied them. In that environment, corruption was exposed to the public and civic engagement reached an all-time high. Yaharzans voted, volunteered, read, discussed, marched, and participated in the democratic process at all levels.
Today, it’s difficult to recognize our media landscape or reconcile how it came to this. Depending on who you ask, a chicken-or-the-egg debate rages. Did increased autocracy weaken our journalistic institutions? Or did weak journalistic institution increase autocracy in the country? Either and both answers are correct in some ways and help to chronicle the sad state of our republic. And while it’s true that market downturns, corporate consolidation, social media, the decline of print, and other factors changed journalism’s reach, the rise of a new, vile brand of populist illiberalism occurred in full view of the media. I would argue that movement grew by using these institutions, because reporters were desperate for revenue and content and needed absolutely every controversy to fill airtime. While the old regime barely understood the concept of public relations, the New National Dream has excelled at incorporating journalists into their narrative and their arsenal. At first, this was to have someone to verbally joust with, an establishment for the party to hold up and ridicule for its supposed complacency.
Overtime however, our country’s media outlets have taken three distinct and unfortunate trajectories. Many have simply shuttered. A few have transformed into timid, heavily censored versions of their former selves. And worst of all, others have become an outsourced arm of government propaganda, parroting whatever nonsense is given to them by the regime and artificially manufacturing what the population sees, hears, and reads. It is a veritable Potemkin village posing as freedom of the press. Along that path that brought us here are shadowy business deals, reporters killed or missing, and a president seemingly at war with independent journalism. My hope is that this is a battle cry that my profession is capable of answering in kind and that our nation’s dissident roots foreshadow the fate of aspiring tyrants. But as always, dear reader, the future depends on you most of all.
