‘Friendly and Useful’

When Rupert Murdoch bought a majority share holding in Star TV in July 1993, it signalled a major change of direction in his corporate strategy. It also coincided with the beginning of a new phase in the development of international television in Asia. Into the early 1990s, there had been grounds for expecting that new media technologies would be a strong force for political liberalisation, for the breaking down of the information barriers which authoritarian national regimes had created. However, in the years since, it is clear that national governments have been moving towards more effective strategies for maintaining control over the new media. Murdoch's actions in the past two years are a telling example of how the interests of large transnational corporations and of strong national governing elites will seek accommodations with each other. At first Murdoch's anti-state rhetoric was seen as threatening, but increasingly in both public and private he has moved to forge alliances with national political elites, especially in China but also in the ASEAN countries, and to reassure them with provisions so that Star's market access will not threaten their political control.