How Media Freedom affects the Escalation of State Violence

• In Event: State Repression and Human Rights II

Abstract

> Why do decision-makers depart from the status quo of repression?
> Changes in repression are not simply a response to changes in
> opposition threat. We argue that the decision to escalaterepression in response to increasing dissent is modified by how freely the press can report on the government's behavior. By manipulating the flow of information, leaders hinder accountability mechanisms and therefore re- duce the political costs attached to escalating human rights violations. We examine whether governments escalate repression in response to increasing violent dissent when they exercise control over the media compared to when they do not. Using a global dataset from 1981-2006, we show that state violence escalates in response to heightened violent dissent only when the freedom of the press is curtailed, but not when the media is free from state intervention. A free media increases expected political costs of repression and effectively reduces the risk of escalating state violence.

Authors

• Sabine C. Carey, University of Mannheim

• Belen Gonzalez, University of Mannheim

• Neil J. Mitchell, University College London