"This study examines the existence of criminal defamation and insult laws in the territory of the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In doing so, it offers a broad, comparative overview of the compliance of OSCE participating States’ legislat
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ion with international standards and best practices in the field of defamation law and freedom of expression. The primary purpose of the study is to identify relevant provisions in law. Although the study does include examples of the usage of these provisions, it is not an analysis of legal practice [...] The study is divided into two sections. The first section offers conclusions according to each of the principal categories researched and in reference to international standards on freedom of expression. The second section provides the detailed research findings for each country, including relevant examples. As the study’s title suggests, the primary research category is general criminal laws on defamation and insult. However, this study also covers special laws protecting the reputation or honour of particular persons or groups of people (e.g., presidents, public officials, deceased persons); special laws protecting the ‘honour’ of the state and state symbols; and blasphemy and religious insult laws." (About this study, page 2)
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"The idea of rules limiting concentration of media ownership is often cast by media owners as a restriction on their right to freedom of expression. Unfortunately, the behaviour of States in Latin America has often lent support to this perspective, especially when States abuse for political ends the
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ir power to provide for regulation of the media. International law has a clear answer to both of these problems. By protecting the rights of both the speaker and the listener, international law provides an alternative view of the claim that limits on media ownership are simply restrictions on freedom of expression. Instead, by promoting a plurality of voices in the public sphere, such limits enhance the right of listeners to receive a diversity of information and ideas, which is essential to the exercise of full citizenship, political participation, robust cultural expression and many other important values in society. Thus what at first blush may appear as a restriction on the expressive rights of speakers is also a form of protection for the freedom of expression rights of listeners." (Conclusion)
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"This report reviews the current state of the right of access to information (RTI) across the world to provide a baseline for future assessments over the lifetime of the 2030 Agenda. It finds that there has been significant incorporation of the right in well over half of UN Member States. The right
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has now been adopted into law or policy in 118 countries around the world (61 percent of UN Member States) from the largest countries (China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and Mexico) to some of the smallest (St Vincent and the Grenadines, Vanuatu) covering 89 percent of the world’s population. In addition, 90 countries have adopted explicit constitutional guarantees [...] This report aims to provide understanding of RTI and its concrete implications on the daily life of citizens and the application of SDGs. It also aims to inform stakeholders on various experiences developed in this field, and the means at their disposal to exercise this right and advocate for its effective and measurable realization." (Executive summary)
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"Recent media policy developments in Poland attract wide media coverage and the attention of governmental and non-governmental international and national organisations and bodies. This article aims at putting the debated regulatory changes into a relevant context through policy analysis. The normati
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ve concept against which the change will be tested, is media pluralism. Why? The concept of media pluralism is often viewed as an important condition for a well-functioning and democratic public sphere and media, while also incorporating political, economic and cultural value dimensions." (Page 197)
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"We have seen in our monitoring of religious freedom worldwide how blasphemy laws, in both theory and practice, harm individuals and societies. In commissioning the study found in the following pages, USCIRF sought to ascertain the prevalence of blasphemy laws worldwide and measure how the content o
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f these laws adheres to basic principles of international law. The findings are sobering indeed. According to the study: • Blasphemy laws are astonishingly widespread. Seventy-one countries, spread out across many regions, maintain such statutes. • Every one of these blasphemy statutes deviates from at least one internationally recognized human rights principle. Most of these laws fail to respect fully the human right of freedom of expression. • All five nations with blasphemy laws that deviate the most from international human rights principles maintain an official state religion. • Most blasphemy laws studied were vaguely worded, as many failed to specify intent as part of the violation. The vast majority carried unduly harsh penalties for violators. • Most blasphemy laws were embedded in the criminal codes and 86 percent of states with blasphemy laws prescribed imprisonment for convicted offenders. Some blasphemy statutes even imposed the death penalty. Clearly, blasphemy laws, in both conception and scope, remain problematic. We trust that this report will draw greater attention to the problem, provoke further discussion about the challenges and encourage constructive attempts to reform or repeal blasphemy measures." (Page 1)
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"Actors interested in media development and freedom of expression can easily inform themselves about the current issues related to spectrum management; this report summarizes those issues, and highlights resources for further research. A “spectrum commons” approach – one that focuses on treati
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ng specific bands of spectrum as openly accessible public resources – may foster media pluralism by decreasing barriers to the free flow of information. Networks are forming around this issue; this report also highlights the major organizations working on this issue from a perspective of rights, freedom of expression and media development." (CIMA website)
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"The prospect of a new Libyan constitution offers an opportunity for consolidated, clear and robust legal protections for freedom of expression. However, the current Constitutional Draft contains significant legal loopholes and establishes institutions of uncertain power. The failure of the Constitu
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tional Draft to adhere to international minimum standards, let alone seek to ensure best practices, means that it may ultimately further weaken human rights, including freedom of expression." (Executive summary)
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"I am proud to present the first ever Media Development Policy. This is the first time in the history of the country that Government has come up with a policy that sets out its vision and mission to promote freedom of expression by guaranteeing press freedom. The Policy is anchored on four main pill
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ars namely: media freedom, media pluralism, media independence and safety of journalists. In this regard, the policy seeks to achieve the internationally agreed media development indicators namely: a system of regulation conducive to freedom of expression, pluralism and diversity of the media, professional and infrastructural capacity building and support institutions that underpin freedom of expression and media as a platform for democratic discourse." (Foreword)
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"Se presenta un análisis temático de tres debates parlamentarios claves para el tema de la libertad de expresión en el ámbito mediático en Chile desde la vuelta a la democracia: la discusión en torno a la Ley de Prensa 1993–2001, el Informe de la Comisión Especial sobre las Libertades de Pe
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nsamiento y Expresión 2007–2010 y el debate de la Ley de Televisión Digital 2008–2014. En todos ellos, la batalla principal se ha librado por el significado mismo de la libertad de expresión, por su contenido meramente negativo —como la libertad de “injerencia” estatal— o el positivo que supone un Estado activo. Los ganadores de los debates argumentaron en contra de la regulación viéndola como una intromisión estatal limitante para el mercado, y reduciendo así la noción de la libertad de expresión a la libertad de empresa." (Resumen)
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"Mit dem Media Services Act, 2016 ist in Tansania am 3. Februar 2017 ein neues Mediengesetz in Kraft getreten, das die Pressefreiheit drastisch einschränkt und in klarem Widerspruch zur Verfassung von 1977 steht. Die umstrittenste Bestimmung betrifft die Verpflichtung von JournalistInnen zur Akkred
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itierung. Weitere Regelungen – wie z. B. die Möglichkeit zur Einstellung von Printmedien – entstammen früheren Gesetzen, deren Wurzeln bis in die Kolonialzeit reichen. Der Beitrag analysiert die unterschiedlichen Verordnungen seit 1912 und dokumentiert die Auswirkungen auf die journalistische Produktion in der jeweiligen Periode. Dabei zeigt sich, dass einmal eingeführte Kontrollmechanismen in den nachfolgenden Gesetzen weitgehend beibehalten wurden. Der Media Services Act, 2016 kann daher als drakonisches Mediengesetz mit kolonialen Wurzeln beschrieben werden." (Abstract)
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"To ensure that African media organizations remain viable players in this changing political and economic landscape, new coalitions need to be built and existing ones strengthened. The existing coalitions in the region display certain weaknesses: they tend to be unevenly spread across the region and
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they tend to focus on a narrow band of concerns. While the existing organizations do important work pertaining to legal protections, constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression, and the safety of journalists, they are weaker in the areas of digital access, infrastructure, and ICT policy. More capacity should be built to enable research into fast-evolving areas of the media such as digital, mobile, and social media, and the questions concerning freedom, independence, and sustainability that arise from this new and rapidly shifting arena. Instead of merely adding more networks and linking existing ones together across the region in a show of solidarity, there is a need for strategic thought around the type of collaborations needed in the region." (Recommendations, page 23)
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"Maria Repnikova reveals the webs of an uneasy partnership between critical journalists and the state in China. More than merely a passive mouthpiece or a dissident voice, the media in China also plays a critical oversight role, one more frequently associated with liberal democracies than with autho
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ritarian systems. Chinese central officials cautiously endorse media supervision as a feedback mechanism, as journalists carve out space for critical reporting by positioning themselves as aiding the agenda of the central state. Drawing on rare access in the field, Media Politics in China examines the process of guarded improvisation that has defined this volatile partnership over the past decade on a routine basis and in the aftermath of major crisis events. Combined with a comparative analysis of media politics in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia, the book highlights the distinctiveness of Chinese journalist-state relations, as well as the renewed pressures facing them in the Xi era." (Publisher description)
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"This research looks at the information needed by in-country development stakeholders with an emphasis on accountability actors including civil society organizations, charities, government workers, and the media. To collect this information, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Sierra Leone
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and Liberia. The majority of interviewees wanted information about financial resources and the channels they flowed through, and all respondents wanted information on the services provided and where the work was happening subnationally, suggesting that these two sets of information may be the most important. Unfortunately, information on subnational locations and services provided is infrequently available through open aid data portals, implying a need to update what aid information is shared." (Page 1)
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"This chapter discusses the role of media in the Republic of Kazakhstan in combating corruption. First, it provides an assessment of the recently passed access to information legislation in the country as it relates to media's access to government information. Second, it analyses the extent to which
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freedom of press is guaranteed and protected, before looking at the level of professionalism and ethics in the media sector. Lastly, this chapter analyses the plurality of Kazakhstan's media sector." (Page 275)
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"This study will contain an analysis on the international and regional standards in the field of freedom of expression, as stipulated in the United Nations conventions and in the European Convention of Human Rights. Further we will establish a link between the breach of the freedom of expression whe
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n cases of violence against journalists arise, especially tackling the impunity problem. The paper will focus on the study of the ECtHR judgements regarding freedom of expression and cases of violence against journalists. Also, we will address the recent recommendations at the Council of Europe level. Concluding, the study will attempt to express some recommendations in solving the problem of violence against journalists." (Abstract)
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"[...] es una herramienta indispensable para operadores de justicia que tratan casos sobre la libertad de expresión. La guía, producida conjuntamente por la UNESCO y la oficina del Relator Especial para Libertad de Expresión (RELE) y escrita por Silvia Chocarro, es un mapa esencial de los estánd
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ares internacionales e incluye recomendaciones de lecturas, referencias a textos legales, ejemplos de casos y recursos útiles para ayudar a operadores de justicia a navegar en el terreno, a veces complejo, de garantizar el derecho a la libertad de expresión y acceso a la información." (www.cima.ned.org)
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