"Este documento tiene el objetivo de contribuir, principalmente, con los gobiernos locales que no pueden implementar sus portales de transparencia estándar (PTE), para que cumplan con su obligación de difundir información sobre la gestión pública y promuevan un mayor acceso a ella. Consideramos
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que esta estrategia de difusión favorecerá el fortalecimiento de una ciudadanía informada y vigilante, con mayores posibilidades de participación en la gestión pública. Su implementación a nivel nacional conllevaría un acelerado proceso de democratización y empoderamiento." (Introducción)
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"This manual is for anyone who provides training and capacity-building for investigative journalists in Africa including facilitators, trainers, lecturers and teachers. It has been written to support journalists in Africa to investigate and report stories of land corruption; a subject that remains u
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nder-reported and poorly understood." (Introduction)
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"The development of free, independent, and sustainable news media in Africa is bedevilled by the “brown envelope syndrome,” the widespread practice of accepting money for news coverage. This paper reveals the pernicious effects the brown envelope syndrome has on African journalism and its abilit
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y to function as a sustainable, democratic tool for nation-building. To curtail the brown envelope, a model to develop an institutional infrastructure for professional journalism is proposed. The model provides a collaborative framework for media and non-media actors (i.e. government, non-government organisations, and foundations) to strengthen the professionalism of journalism work through: higher education programmes that teach professional values and reveal damaging practices, professional associations that define and advocate journalism values that inform practices, and professional news management that incentivises and rewards best practices." (Abstract)
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"Los periodistas que leamos esta guía, de principio a fin, encontraremos una ruta rápida para investigar procesos relacionados con la contratación pública y la identificación y construcción de redes de poder; a su vez, se encontrarán elementos para hacer consultas en bases de datos. Todo esto
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desde el punto de vista de un periodismo de investigación." (Página 4)
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"While scholarly inquiries into the coverage of climate change in Africa are growing, there appears to be a dearth of studies focusing on how the political economy shapes the coverage. This qualitative study addresses this gap by exploring how vested interests, corruption and declining advertising r
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evenue among other factors affect climate change news in Nigeria. The findings of this study - which draws on interviews with journalism professionals undertaken in Lagos in 2013 - suggest that media owners, editors and even climate change reporters have different interests to protect, all of which influence climate change reportage. The study concludes that in order to get their stories published, ethical climate change reporters might need to find creative ways of making their stories meaningful without hurting the interests that appear to frustrate the reporting of the phenomenon. The issues examined in this study provide a research-based framework for the analysis of the political economy of climate change reporting in Nigeria." (Abstract)
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"This book deploys an original comparative framework, as well as archival and pattern-matching research methodologies, to analyze whistleblowing cases from Peru, South Korea, Thailand and the United States of America and to ascertain factors that make for effective whistleblowing. After examining th
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e cases, the study concludes that external whistleblowing, extensive mass media coverage, and strong evidence are essential components of effective whistleblowing. When there is a lack of proper legal protection, whistleblowers experience brutal retaliation, even though their actions are successful in stopping wrongdoing and promoting change in the public sector." (Publisher description)
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"An independent media is one of the most effective assets we have in efforts to curb corruption and foster accountability. Yet it is deeply imperilled, particularly in fragile states and often poorly understood by the international development sector. This policy working paper argues that unless dev
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elopment strategies begin to prioritise support to independent media, corruption may continue to go unchecked and the accountability of states will diminish." (Website BBC Media Action)
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"This policy briefing examines the prospects for media being able to play that role, especially in fragile states. It concludes that the evidence supporting the effectiveness of media as an accountability actor continues to mount even when the performance of other anti-corruption measures are called
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into question. It looks at the increasing pressures facing independent media in fragile states, especially those of political co-option and a reduction in media freedom. It suggests that these pressures are intensifying precisely because media is so effective at holding power to account and exposing corruption. It argues that independent media need more attention from international development actors not only financially but also through their strategic focus and influence they can bring to bear to supporting media freedom. Without it, such media are likely to struggle to survive and corruption can be expected to increase." (BBC Media Action website)
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"A framework to ensure that whistleblowers are protected by the law and that their public interest reports or disclosures are effectively acted upon will strengthen democratic societies based on human rights and the rule of law. The Council of Europe Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7, adopted by the Comm
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ittee of Ministers on 30 April 2014, offers important policy advice to member states on the content of such a framework and this brief guide gives suggestions on how it might be put in place, drawing on existing international practice." (Back cover)
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"The goal of the seminar “Reporting on Corruption and Investigative Journalism” is a two-day active dialogue between journalists and investigators from the region in order to discuss the following topics: ethics of reporting - cases and practice in Serbia, investigative journalism and corruption
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, as well as the standards of reporting on corruption allegations. The direct intention of the organiser is to encourage the journalists to deal with this topic in their everyday work, as well as to encourage some of them to perfect themselves in the field of investigative journalism and to join specialised teams for investigative journalism. A collection of articles, created in particular for this occasion, is a result of many years of journalism experience in investigation, as well as of academic approach to the ethics of journalism, which is particularly important in investigative journalism and court reporting." (Pages 6-7)
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"This report, which has been produced by a group of distinguished journalists and their supporters, examines the broad scope of the crisis. It covers countries where media are on the frontline of tough political battles, such as Egypt and Turkey. In Ukraine, for instance, the practice of paid-for jo
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urnalism is a tool routinely used by politicians at election time. The same is true in India. In other countries, including Nigeria, Philippines, and Colombia the precarious working conditions of news staff provide fertile conditions for corruption and “brown envelopes” or under-the-table cash payments to reporters and editors which are a routine feature of journalistic work. The struggles facing journalists in settled democracies, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark, are less brazen, but no less challenging and in a range of countries across the Western Balkans with a shared and painful history, media corruption hinders aspirations to break free from the legacy of war, censorship and political control during decades of communist rule. The story is of an uphill struggle. Everywhere there is a crisis of confidence inside newsrooms caused by crumbling levels of commitment to ethics, a lowering of the status of journalistic work and a pervasive lack of transparency over advertising, ownership and corporate and political affiliations. Government control over lucrative state advertising, which is often allocated to media according to their political bias, remains widespread. At the same time, the elimination in most countries of the invisible wall separating editorial and advertising has created a surge of so-called “native advertising,” hidden advertorials and paid-for journalism. It was this conflict of interest that plunged the crisis-prone UK press into a new bout of handwringing in February 2015 when Peter Oborne, a leading political journalist, quit his job at the Daily Telegraph accusing the management of censoring stories about HSBC bank, a leading advertiser caught up in a tax scandal. These reports tell essentially the same story of deep cuts in editorial investment, undue pressure on newsrooms, and media increasingly dependent upon atypical models of ownership in which media have become the trophy possessions of powerful figures and institutions in pursuit of wider corporate and political objectives." (Introduction, page iii-iv)
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"The purpose of the study is to provide baseline data and research-driven recommendations to help inform and later evaluate the impact of ‘Action for Transparency’. Action for Transparency is a three-year, media-for-development programme, managed by Fojo and its partners and funded by the Swedis
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h International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The programme is designed to help tackle corruption and mismanagement of government funds in Zambia and Uganda by putting the power to change in the hands of citizens. Action for Transparency comprises three phases of targeted interventions designed to catalyse a culture of accountability and transparency through a ripple out effect. The three phases include: 1. Training for up to 4,000 journalists, civil society representatives and public sector employees in Zambia and Uganda on how to access, analyse and communicate information on government spending. 2. Development of ICT tools, including an online application (app) which enables users to compare the amount of government money pledged to specific schools and health clinics against their own observations of what appears to have been spent. 3. Public awareness campaign, through which those who took part in the initial training will launch and champion the new ICT tools, nationally, and raise awareness through a range of promotional activities. This study presents baseline data and findings that will inform and later help evaluate the overall3 impact of the three phases on participating journalists and civil society representatives, and their capacity to (a) access (b) analyse and (c) communicate information about government spending." (Introduction, page 4)
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"In a world of open-ended access to social media, the ability of governments to control information is slipping away. It is plausible in countries with limited Internet access for citizens to remain ignorant of the true amount of corruption. We built a cross-country panel of 124 developing nations t
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o analyze the effect of Internet usage on perceptions of corruption from 1996 to 2009. We find that, ceteris paribus, the information citizens receive from the World Wide Web leads to deteriorating views of the state of corruption in their country. Greater perceptions of government effectiveness are unsurprisingly found to negatively and significantly decrease perceptions of corruption within countries." (Abstract)
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"In 2010 the Open Democracy Advice Centre undertook a comprehensive review of the state of whistleblowing in South Africa, entitled 'The Status of Whistleblowing' (2010). Three years on, the whistleblowing landscape is due another review. Research demonstrates that progress has not merely halted in
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the current context, but that in fact South Africa appears increasingly hostile to whistleblowing activities. It is not just legislative provisions that may require review, but other broader environmental recommendations are also needed in order to properly enable whistleblowing. This publication looks at how to create an environment in South Africa that can encourage whistleblowers to act – this means not looking at law alone, and understanding that interventions are required at multiple points in the whistleblowing process if people are to feel supported enough to disclose." (Introduction)
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