War on Terror war on democracy?

Abstract

This article deals with the effect of 9/11 and the subsequent War on Terror in media in the United States, the United Kingdom and Denmark. The focus is particularly on documentary films and programmes and the investigative genre. Structural and long-term media developments in both the United States and Europe have, since 2000, undermined and weakened the role of critical, investigative documentaries. The effect of the War on Terror on media and democratic, public dialogue and criticism was clearly a further weakening of dissenting, documentary voices. The strong tradition in Europe for public service film and television cultures had to face up to severe political criticism and attacks on their independence when broadcasting critical documentaries on the War on Terror, and in the United States the independent voices were even more marginalized from the mainstream media.