Newspaper monopoly

The concentration of press ownership puts freedom of expression in jeopardy for a number of reasons, particularly the need to please advertisers and employers. The latter may be foreign, governmental, industrial, financial, for example; but they all usually have a central motive of profit or propaganda. Articles and other content may be censored by the owners and the tone of a number of different newspapers within the same group may be conformist. Such newspapers and hence the conglomerates that own them may exert undue political influence, leading to a lack of democracy and political instability. Where the monopoly is exerted by a national or foreign company, governmental reprisals may be taken, especially if undue political pressure has been exerted against the regime. Concentration of press ownership and the consequent increased conformism may constitute minority discrimination particularly against strong ethnic groups using diverse languages.