International Politics and the Media: The Case of the Press/Media in the War on Terror

Abstract

The fundamental changes and deterioration in state-news media relations since 9/11, particularly in the relations between the United States, US’ allies in the war on terror and international news networks in the post-9/11 world, have necessitated a reassessment of existing theoretical framework that describes the state-media relations. This paper, after providing a brief summary of theoretical framework for the press-state relations within a historical context, analyses the impact of the post-September 11 events on the freedom of expression and press freedom to introduce the changing and deteriorating environment for the press-state relations since then. The paper concludes that the power politics applied widely by states in domestically and internationally in the post 9/11 world have caused serious violations of the freedom of expression in general, these therefore resulted setbacks and deteriorations in press freedom in particular. The paper also concludes that this new state of affairs consequently necessitates new theories and approaches to explain the post-9/11 state-media relations.

Keywords: September 11, International Politics, War on Terror, Civil Liberties, State-Press Relations, Press-Media Theories

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