The US: The United States could stifle free expression and set a bad example for new democracies if it lifts caps on corporate ownership of US television stations, according to the largest Western security and rights body.
The media rights office of the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which includes the United States, said it was concerned about Monday's scheduled vote by the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) on letting big broadcasters and newspapers own more stations.
It was the third time this year that the OSCE's representative for media freedom, Mr Freimut Duve, has questioned the US on media issues.
Mr Duve, a former German parliamentarian, said: "I'm a bit worried. But most of my worries come to me from American journalists, politicians, professors, who tell me something is going on." He was referring to developments since Washington's security crackdown after September 11th, 2001.
In January Mr Duve criticised US surveillance of book-buyers and library patrons under anti-terror laws dubbed the USA Patriot Act, and on Monday he asked Washington to explain why six French journalists were handcuffed, searched and expelled after arriving at Los Angeles airport with the wrong visas.
The US State Department has defended the expulsion of the journalists on technical grounds related to their visa status but said it was not US policy to "hinder" any reporter in their legitimate work.
Mr Duve said yesterday he was concerned about the proposed changes to a 28-year-old ban that prevents newspapers from buying television stations in the same city and limits the number of television outlets big broadcasters can own.
Critics say the change, backed by the Bush administration, would further concentrate information in the hands of five major media owners - News Corp., General Electric Co, Walt Disney Co, Viacom Inc and AOL Time Warner Inc. Backers say there is plenty of competitive pressure providing for a range of views.
"If passed, these changes may affect the pluralism of opinion that characterises the media scene in the US," Mr Duve said in a statement.
"However, my main concern is with the precedent this sets for other OSCE-participating states where democratic counterbalances to authoritarian rule, including free media, are still weak."
He called the US "the most symbolically important country for the culture of press freedom", especially for new post-Soviet states that have a mixed democratic record.
The OSCE groups governments from the US and Canada, all of Europe and the former Soviet Union. Mr Duve's office has no power to sanction members but instead works by drawing public attention to concerns.
He said media concentration was an issue across the entire OSCE and his office was conducting a study of the problem in both Western members and ex-communist states. - (Reuters)