The BBC reports on a global survey that shows 40% of respondents "said it was more important to maintain social harmony and peace, even if it meant curbing the press's freedom to report news truthfully." That number is shocking to many folks in the West, which overwhelmingly favored press freedom over safety. Roughly 70% of respondents from North America and Western Europe "put freedom first."Â

Reminds me of one of Shel Israel's key observations in the SAP Global Survey:Â

In cultures where society is emerging from monolithic governments, such as Russia, China, the former Soviet satellites, and Singapore, citizen journalism is on a rapid rise. In societies where a free press is entrenched, it is emerging more slowly.Â

Yet, according to the BBC survey, the citizens of these countries put "safety first." What may be happening, in fact, is that citizen journalism is playing the role of civic-educator in countries where freedom - as Westerners define it - is a relatively new thing. In any case, citizen-generated news is generally trusted more in those countries and better positioned to win readers, whether they fear for their safety or cherish their freedoms.