Depends on whether they are reasonably independent. This works pretty well for e.g NRK, YLE, DR etc. Government can’t have a say in short term (less than an election cycle) funding, or who’s leading the Public Service company or similar. There can be no possible leverage from politicians, that’s the key.
. The job of public service like any media is to be critical of power.
The first sign of a country sliding towards being a non-democracy is political tampering with public service.
Depends on the government. Poland for example was ok with criticising the government on the national tv for many years, until the last swing to "law and order".
So there are no guarantees even if it works without censorship currently.
("law and order" means PiS, the previous rolling party) I think this is the biggest issue - the temptation and the power to take over the national media is always there, and all it takes to dismantle all the checks and balances is one determined filling party.
In the other hand, the US manages to control it's completely privatized media, so maybe being publically funded is not the issue.
Depends on whether they are reasonably independent. This works pretty well for e.g NRK, YLE, DR etc. Government can’t have a say in short term (less than an election cycle) funding, or who’s leading the Public Service company or similar. There can be no possible leverage from politicians, that’s the key. . The job of public service like any media is to be critical of power. The first sign of a country sliding towards being a non-democracy is political tampering with public service.
Depends on the government. Poland for example was ok with criticising the government on the national tv for many years, until the last swing to "law and order".
So there are no guarantees even if it works without censorship currently.
("law and order" means PiS, the previous rolling party) I think this is the biggest issue - the temptation and the power to take over the national media is always there, and all it takes to dismantle all the checks and balances is one determined filling party.
In the other hand, the US manages to control it's completely privatized media, so maybe being publically funded is not the issue.