Support for good governance

How, one might ask, does the sponsorship of an awards program for journalists support good governance across the Asia-Pacific region?

The answer is that it seems to us that the overall processes of good governance in any country go well beyond the role of government alone. Certainly it is of central importance that governments themselves are effective and honest and transparent. But it is also of central importance that non-government actors -- that is, the citizens of any country and the numerous civil society institutions they belong to -- are well-informed about the operations of their government and that there are effective channels through which their views on national issues can be aired. It is here that the media has several key roles to perform.

One way in which the media can contribute to good governance is by playing a watchdog role -- by monitoring the performance of top political and official leaders and by encouraging public debate about the leadership that they provide.

A second way is by encouraging informed, high-quality debate about national policies and helping create constituencies for reform. It is unrealistic to expect government leaders to be able to promote reform acting alone. Political leaders need widespread community support to promote change across a nation. Thus the media's role in supporting reform is a very important one. It can play a key role, first, in helping create constituencies for change and then later, once reform packages have been introduced, in helping encourage acceptance of the changes across the nation.