Fostering Bottom-Up Censorship From the Top-Down: Nationalism and Media Restrictions

Abstract

From US President Donald Trump’s Tweet labeling news media “the enemy of the people” to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s establishment of a politically appointed Media Authority, media freedom is under threat in democracies and nondemocracies alike. According to Freedom House, in 2016 media freedom declined globally to its lowest level since 2003, with Europe experiencing the largest regional decrease. We investigate the relationship between government and media in Hungary and Poland and develop a theory that the rise of nationalist sentiment and leaders who leverage this sentiment to encourage censorship from the bottom-up has led to increased media restrictions from the top-down. We posit that bottom-up censorship will erode media credibility and make people more accepting of top-down media restrictions, which could, in turn, lead to nationalism unchecked by the fourth estate. Using a multilevel analysis of World Values Survey, we analyze the relationship between nationalism and media distrust. Using a cross-national time series, we analyze the relationship between nationalist sentiment and media restrictions. We find that increased nationalism is indeed associated with media distrust and media restrictions.

Keywords

nationalism censorship populism freedom freedom of the press internet cosmopolitanism authoritarianism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abramowitz

M. J.

2017. “Press Freedom’s Dark Horizon.” Freedom House Freedom of the Press 2017. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/freedom-press-2017

Achen

C. H.

2000. “Why Lagged Dependent Variables Can Suppress the Explanatory Power of Other Independent Variables.” Annual Meeting of the Political Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association. UCLA, Los Angeles. https://www.princeton.edu/csdp/events/Achen121201/achen.pdf

Anderson

1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

Appiah

K. A.

2006. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. London: Penguin.

Bjørnskov

Voigt

2021. “Is Constitutionalized Media Freedom Only Window Dressing? Evidence from Terrorist Attacks.” Public Choice 187:321–48. doi:10.1007/s11127-020-00783-9

Brubaker

1992. Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Casaglia

Coletti

2021. “Territorializing Threats in Nationalist Populist Narratives: An Italian Perspective on the Migration and Covid-19 Crises.” Space and Polity. Published online October 20. doi:10.1080/13562576.2021.1991783.

Davidov

2009. “Measurement Equivalence of Nationalism and Constructive Patriotism in the ISSP: 34 Countries in a Comparative Perspective.” Political Analysis 17(1): 64–82. doi:10.1093/pan/mpn014

De Cleen

. 2017. “Populism and Nationalism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Populism, eds. Kaltwasser

C. R.

Taggart

Espejo

P. O.

Ostiguy

Oxford: Oxford University Press

10.

Downie

2020. “The Trump Administration and the Media: Attacks on the Press Endanger US Democracy and Global Press Freedom.” A Special Report of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved December 17, 2022. https://cpj.org/reports/2020/04/trump-media-attacks-credibility-leaks/

11.

Freedom House. 2019. “Freedom and the Media 2019: A Downward Spiral.” Retrieved June 6, 2021. https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/FINAL07162019_Freedom_And_The_Media_2019_Report.pdf

12.

Freedom House. 2017. Freedom of the Press Index 2017. Washington, D.C.: Freedom House.

13.

Gellner

1981. “Nationalism.” Theory and Society 10(6):723–56.

14.

Gleditsch

K. S.

Ward.

M. D.

1997. “Double Take: A Reexamination of Democracy and Autocracy in Modern Polities.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41(3):361–83.

15.

Griffen

2020. “Hungary: A Lesson in Media Control.” British Journalism Review 31(1):57–62.

16.

Hameleers

Bos

Fawzi

Reinemann

Andreadis

Corbu

Schemer

Schulz

Shaefer

Aalberg

Axelsson

Berganza

Cremonesi

Dahlberg

De Vreese

C. H.

Hess

Kartsounidou

Kasprowicz

Matthes

Negrea-Busuioc

Ringdal

Salgado

Sanders

Schmuck

Stromback

Suiter

Boomgaarden

Tenenboim-Weinblatt

Weiss-Yaniv

2018. “Start Spreading the News: A Comparative Experiment on the Effects of Populist Communication on Political Engagement in Sixteen European Countries.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 23(4):517–38.

17.

Haerpfer

Inglehart

Moreno

Welzel

Kizilova

Diez-Medrano

Lagos

Norris

Ponarin

Puranen

2020. World values survey wave 7 (2017-2020) cross-national data-set. http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV7.jsp. Version, (1.5).

18.

International Telecommunications Union. 2017. Percentage of Individuals Using the Internet. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/stat/default.aspx.

19.

Kaltwasser

C. R.

Taggart

Ochoa Espejo

Ostiguy

, eds. 2017. The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

20.

Kellam

Stein

E. A.

2016. “Silencing Critics: Why and How Presidents Restrictmedia Freedom in Democracies.” Comparative Political Studies 49(1):36–77.

21.

Kim

Fording

R. C.

1998. “Voter Ideology in Western Democracies, 1946-1989.” European Journal of Political Research 33:73–97.

22.

Kohn

(1944). The Idea of Nationalism: A Study in its Origins and Background. New York: Macmillan Co.

23.

Lendvai-Bainton

Szelewa.

2021. “Governing New Authoritarianism: Populism, Nationalism and Radical Welfare Reforms in Hungary and Poland.” Social Policy & Administration 55(4): 559–72.

24.

Lessig

1999. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.

25.

Marshall

M. G.

(Principal Investigator). 2017a. “Polity IV Data Series Version 2016. Center for Systemic Peace and Societal-Systems Research Inc.” http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/p4manualv2016.pdf

26.

Marshall

M. G.

2017b. “Major Episodes of Political Violence (MEPV) and Conflict Regions, 1946-2016.” Center for Systemic Peace and Societal-Systems Research Inc. http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/MEPVcodebook2016.pdf

27.

Martin

L. W.

Stevenson.

R. T.

2010. “The Conditional Impact of Incumbency on Government Formation.” American Political Science Review 104(3):503–18.

28.

McCormick

J. M.

Mitchell

N. J.

1997. “Human Rights Violations, Umbrella Concepts and Empirical Analysis.” World Politics 49(4):510–25.

29.

Mußotter

2022. “We Do Not Measure What We Aim to Measure: Testing Three Measurement Models for Nationalism and Patriotism.” Quality and Quantity 56:2177–97. doi:10.1007/s11135-021-01212-9.

30.

Mudde

2007. Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

31.

Mudde

2016. “Europe’s Populist Surge: A Long Time in the Making.” Foreign Affairs 95(6):25–30.

32.

Mužík

Šerek.

2021. “What Reduces Support for Civil Liberties: Authoritarianism, National Identity, and Perceived Threat.” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy 21(1):734–60.

33.

Nordenstreng

2011. Free flow doctrine in global media policy. The Handbook of Hlobal Media and Communication Policy, 79–94.

34.

Orbán

2017. “Speech at the Meeting of Alliance of Christian Intellectuals in Budapest. Quoted and translated by Sean Lambert in ‘The Orange Files.’” Retrieved August 27, 2021. https://theorangefiles.hu/notable-quotes-prime-minister-viktor-orban-by-subject/

35.

Orbán

2018. “Speech on the 170th Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Delivered on March 19, 2018.” Retrieved August 27, 2021. https://visegradpost.com/en/2018/03/19/viktor-orbans-ceremonial-speech-on-the-170th-anniversary-of-the-hungarian-revolution-of-1848-full-speech/

36.

Perrone

2019. “Targetting the Messenger: Journalists Ensnared by National Security Legislation, 2014-2018.” Special Report, Index on Censorship, London.

37.

Poe

S. C.

Tate

C. N.

Keith.

L. C.

1999. “Repression of the Human Right to Personal Integrity Revisited: A Global Cross-National Study Covering the Years 1976-1993.” International Studies Quarterly 43(2):291–313.

38.

Poe

S. C.

Tate

N. C.

1994. “Repression of Human Rights to Personal Integrity in the 1980s: A Global Analysis.” American Political Science Review 88(4):853–72.

39.

Polynczuk-Alenius

2021. “At the Intersection of Racism and Nationalism: Theorising and Contextualising the ‘Anti-Immigration’ Discourse in Poland.” Nations and Nationalism 27(3):766–81.

40.

Press Freedom Act. Hungary Article 17 2010.

41.

Reeskens

Wright

2013. “Nationalism and the Cohesive Society: A Multilevel Analysis of the Interplay Among Diversity, National Identity, and Social Capital Across 27 European Societies.” Comparative Political Studies 46(2):153–81.

42.

Reporters Without Borders. 2019. “2019 World Press Freedom Index-A Cycle of Fear.” Retrieved June 6, 2021. https://rsf.org/en/2019-world-press-freedom-index-cycle-fear

43.

Reporters Without Borders. 2021a. “China’s Cyber Censorship Figures: Reporters Without Borders.” RSF, March 25. https://rsf.org/en/chinas-cyber-censorship-figures

44.

Reporters Without Borders. 2021b. “Viktor Orbán Stages Laughable Video after Bring Labelled Press Freedom Predator.” RSF, July 12. https://ref.org/en/news/viktor-orban-stages-laughable-video-after-being-labelled-press-freedom-predator.

45.

Salmon

L. M.

1923. The Newspaper and Authority. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

46.

Schimpfössl

Yablokov.

2020. “Post-Socialist Self-Censorship: Russia, Hungary and Latvia.” European Journal of Communication 35(1):29–45.

47.

Seawright

2016. “The Case for Selecting Cases that are Deviant or Extreme on the Independent Variable.” Sociological Methods & Research 45(3):493–525.

48.

Thorpe

“The Man Who Thinks Europe Has Been Invaded.” BBC News. April 6, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Viktor_Orban

49.

Trump

D. J.

2018. (realDonaldTrump). “There is Great Anger in our Country Caused in Part by Inaccurate, and Even Fraudulent, Reporting of the News. The Fake News Media, the True Enemy of the People, Must Stop the Open & Obvious Hostility & Report the News Accurately & Fairly. That Will do Much to Put out the Flame...” October 29. Tweet.

50.

United Nations Development Programme. 2016. “Human Development Index (HDI).” Human Development Reports. Retrieved January 10, 2018. http://hdr.undp.org/en/data

51.

Van Hauwaert

S. M.

Van Kessel.

2018. “Beyond Protest and Discontent: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effect of Populist Attitudes and Issue Positions on Populist Party Support.” European Journal of Political Research 57(1):68–92.

52.

Volkens

Lehmann

Matthieß

Merz

Regel

Weßels

2017. The Manifesto Data Collection. Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Version 2017a. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB). doi:10.25522/manifesto.mpds.2017a.

53.

Voltmer

Wasserman

2014. Journalistic norms between universality and domestication: Journalists’ interpretations of press freedom in six new democracies. Global Media and Communication, 10(2), 177–192.

54.

Whitten

Williams.

2001. “Buttery Guns and Welfare Hawks: The Politics of Defense Spending in Advanced Industrial Democracies.” American Journal of Political Science 55(1):117–34.

55.

Whitten-Woodring

Van Belle

D.A.

2014. Historical guide to world media freedom: A country-by-country analysis. CQ Press.

56.

Whitten-Woodring

Van Belle.

2017. “The Correlates of Media Freedom: An Introduction of the Global Media Freedom Dataset.” Political Science Research and Methods, 5(1):179–88.

57.

Wodak

Boukala.

2016. “Talking About Solidarity and Security in the Age of Crisis: The Revival of Nationalism and Protectionism in the European Union–A Discourse-Historical Approach.” In Carta C. and Jean-Frédéric Morin (eds), EU Foreign Policy through the Lens of Discourse Analysis: Making sense of diversity. (pp. 187–206). New York, NY:Routledge.

58.

Yazici

2019. “Nationalism and Human Rights.” Political Research Quarterly 72(1):147–61.

59.

Zelizer

Allan.

2011. Journalism After September 11. 2nd Edition. London and New York: Routledge.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

1.17 MB