Implications of foreign ownership on journalistic quality in a post-communist society: The case of finance

Abstract

When freedom from Communism largely eliminated overt government censorship of newspapers, other political and business pressures appeared. Consequently, Southeastern European newspaper publishers faced threats to financial viability and editorial integrity. The editor-in-chief of one newspaper in the former Yugoslavian republic of Slovenia claims to have found freedom from political and advertiser influence after a global media conglomerate invested in the publication. Notably, the business daily Finance is the only hard-news start-up to survive in the eleven years since Slovenia gained independence from the Republic of Yugoslavia. This research paper offers a provocative example where international investment appears to have contributed to the democratizing of media in a post-communist society. The paper is not intended to argue that foreign media investments are necessarily beneficial but to suggest some circumstances in which foreign media investment can be advantageous to the democratic aspirations of a society.