"This book addresses the persistence of the optical media piracy trade in the Philippines and Vietnam. It goes beyond arguments of defective law enforcement and copyright legal systems by applying sociological perspectives to examine the socio-economic forces behind the advent of piracy in the regio
...
n. Using documentary and ethnographic data, in addition to resistance and ecological theories in sociology of law and technology as the overall theoretical framework, the book investigates factors that contribute to this phenomenon and factors that impede the full formalization of the optical media trade in the two countries. These factors include the government's attitude towards the informal sector and strong resistance to tougher IPR protection, unstable and sometimes conflicting policies on technologies, burdensome business registration process and weak enforcement of business regulations, bureaucratic corruption and loopholes in law enforcement system as well as trade ties with China. In addition to that, the book highlights the social background of the actors behind the illegal business of counterfeit CDs and DVDs, thereby explaining the reasons they continue to persist in this type of trade. It invites policymakers, law enforcers, advocates of anti-piracy groups, and the general public to use a more holistic lens in understanding the persistence of copyright piracy in developing countries, shifting the blame from the moral defect of the traders to the current problematic copyright policy and enforcement structure, and the difficulty of crafting effective anti-piracy measures in a constantly evolving and advancing technological environment." (Publisher description)
more
"This report details how the criminal law is used to limit peaceful expression in India. It documents examples of the ways in which vague or overbroad laws are used to stifle political dissent, harass journalists, restrict activities by nongovernmental organizations, arbitrarily block Internet sites
...
or take down content, and target religious minorities and marginalized communities, such as Dalits. The report identifies laws that should be repealed or amended to bring them into line with international law and India’s treaty commitments. These laws have been misused, in many cases in defiance of Supreme Court rulings or advisories clarifying their scope. For example, in 1962, the Supreme Court ruled that speech or action constitutes sedition only if it incites or tends to incite disorder or violence. Yet various state governments continue to charge people with sedition even when that standard is not met. While India’s courts have generally protected freedom of expression, their record is uneven. Some lower courts continue to issue poorly reasoned, speech-limiting decisions, and the Supreme Court, while often a forceful defender of freedom of expression, has at times been inconsistent, leaving lower courts to choose which precedent to emphasize. This lack of consistency has contributed to an inconsistent terrain of free speech rights and left the door open to continued use of the law by local officials and interest groups to harass and intimidate unpopular and dissenting opinions." (Summary, page 2)
more
"This report reviews similarities and differences in public sector support for the media across a sample of six developed democracies – Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States – that represent a wide range of different media systems and different approaches to
...
media policy. It shows that public support for the media in all of them has remained basically unchanged for decades: Primarily it takes the form of licence fee funding going overwhelmingly to public service broadcasting. This is the case in all the five European countries. In the United States, federal and state appropriations for public broadcasting constitute the second most significant form of public support for the media. Secondarily it takes the form of indirect support for paid print media industry incumbents. In the United States, this form of support is more significant than funding for public broadcasting. In all cases governments offer more indirect than direct support for private sector media organisations. Only Finland, France, and Italy offer direct subsidies; in Finland and France almost exclusively for the printed press, in Italy also to local broadcasters. In all three countries, indirect subsidies are more significant. There is no substantial public-sector support for online-only media organisations. In France, the only country in which such support was available, it amounted to little more than 1/10,000th of all public support in 2008." (Executive summary)
more
"Our interest in this book is to examine the contribution of citizens’ movements to a uniquely intense period of policy reforms in public communication in Latin America during the 2000–2015 period. We examine a range of experiences of citizen participation to reshape media systems and change med
...
ia policy-making processes in the region. The analysis dips in and out of cases of media activism at both national and regional levels. Because we are interested in understanding the overall characteristics of media activism and policy reforms as well as similarities and differences in the region, we cast a wide analytical net by looking at various experiences. We are less interested in producing a granular analysis of particular experiences by country or type of media reform than in finding connecting threads among media movements in terms of goals, strategies, and impact. Whereas our analysis primarily draws from the cases of Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, and Uruguay, we also make references to experiences in other countries. We chose these countries because, although they present similar levels of citizen activism on various media policies, the outcomes have been notoriously different." (Introduction, page 2)
more
"El informe ofrece una sección breve de antecedentes y contextualización del sistema mediático peruano, para seguidamente exponer y analizar las principales disposiciones que sobre concentración de medios se encuentran en la Constitución, leyes y reglamentos específicos. Propone, así mismo, u
...
na aproximación a la implementación de las políticas y regulación por parte de las autoridades competentes; y presenta también los principales temas de debate y discursos predominantes en torno a la concentración y la configuración de monopolios y oligopolios. Finalmente, el documento ofrece un conjunto de conclusiones y recomendaciones que, conjuntamente con los resultados del Monitoreo de Propiedad de Medios (MOM) y la constatación de vínculos de los propietarios con otros sectores económicos y políticos, podrían aportar a un debate sobre alternativas de política pública orientada a promover una mayor pluralidad política y diversidad cultural en el ámbito de los medios de comunicación, ampliando el ejercicio de la libertad de expresión y aportando al proceso de consolidación de la democracia en el Perú." (Presentación, página 2)
more
"Two basic principles should prevail for media regulation in Cambodia: 1. Consistent application of the principles of the rule of law on the basis of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and press (Art. 35 and 41: Cambodian Constitution). 2. Transparent and predictable regulative decision-
...
making that is oriented towards professional journalistic standards." (Executive summary)
more
"During the last decade, the image of war correspondents in the news has shifted dramatically. Reports are no longer full of cheerleading stories of embedded journalists. Instead, stories of war reporters being attacked, kidnapped or injured prevail. Sadly, the former heroic witnesses to war have be
...
come victims of their own story. In this book, Nina Burri provides the first comprehensive analysis on how international law protects professional and citizen journalists, photographers, cameramen and their support staff during times of war. Using examples from recent armed conflicts in Iraq, Libya, Gaza and Syria, Burri explores the means, methods and risks of contemporary war coverage and examines the protection of news providers by international humanitarian law, international criminal law and human rights law." (Abstract)
more
"This manual has been produced to accompany a training workshop on defamation for lawyers and journalists in Europe. It contains resources and background material to help trainers prepare and participants to understand the issues being discussed. Participants in the workshops will be both journalist
...
s and media personnel – for whom the workshop will be an opportunity to learn about the general principles behind defamation law – and lawyers, who will also practice developing litigation strategies in the event of defamation suits against their clients." (Introduction)
more
"Since the Jasmine Revolution, a new constitutional and institutional framework has been put in place in Tunisia, laying the foundations for the liberalisation of the media. But this framework remains embryonic and the situation fragile, and there is an urgent need to address shortcomings in media g
...
overnance." (Executive summary)
more
"Palestine has fewer provisions for media legislation than any other country in the Southern Mediterranean region, and the occupation by and conflict with Israel represents an ongoing threat to press freedom and media development. Steps are being taken, though, that show how civil society might lead
...
reform processes in the future." (Executive summary)
more
"In accordance with the provisions of the new constitution, Morocco needs a new audio-visual law, guidelines on transparent management of the sector, an amended Press Code and a clearer definition of the responsibilities of various stakeholders." (Recommendations, page 20)
"Libya has no history of free and independent media, and this has not changed post-revolution. As it is therefore not possible to conduct a proper analysis of media legislation in the country, this report focuses on the subject in more general terms." (Executive summary)
"Although ostensibly free, the Lebanese media find themselves stifled by several legal, political, economic and cultural restrictions, which limit freedom of expression. This calls for an overhaul of the judiciary and electoral system, which must occur multilaterally." (Conclusions and recommendatio
...
ns, page 32)
more
"Legal changes are crucial to the development of a media capable of playing a democratic role in Jordan. This includes the lifting of licensing requirements, allowing full access to information and installing independent industry regulators." (Recommendations)
"Israel’s media laws guarantee freedom of information in all areas except those related to national security or military units – and the grey area lies in the interpretation of these laws." (Page 14)