"This non-paper aims to facilitate the OSCE participating states in formulating national and international law and policy toward the current spread of propaganda intertwined with the conflict in and around Ukraine. It distinguishes two sorts of propaganda in the contemporary world. The first is call
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ed propaganda for war and hatred; it demands legal action with appropriate measures in accordance with international human rights law. The second type of propaganda combines all its other faces. It may be against professional standards of journalism, but does not necessarily violate international law. This non-paper reviews OSCE and other international commitments in regard to hateful international propaganda in the context of the obligations of the participating States on freedom of expression and freedom of the media. The particular focus lies on the relation between Article 19 (on freedom of expression) and Article 20 (on banning war propaganda and incitement to hatred) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its interpretations by the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC)." (Executive summary)
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"This report recommends the use of opt-in regulation that offers favourable terms for the provision of content of ‘public value’. This approach will ensure that common European aims and values are maintained and national cultural particularities respected in a stable and long-lasting regulatory
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framework." (Executive summary)
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"The government has developed various mechanisms for creating financial dependence on the part of the media, at both the national and the regional level. Owing to these financial relations, the media outlets become servile to the government, thereby seriously undermining own professional integrity a
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nd independence. The allocation of government advertising has been conducted on the grounds of political eligibility, in a non-transparent manner, disregarding the specific criteria such as viewership, ratings and influence. The advertising campaigns were awarded to media outlets whose editorial policy was biased towards the government, as well to other broadcasters after changing ownership and consequently also editorial policy. Using the state budget funds, the government fosters the sustainability as well as the rise of many media outlets at the national and regional levels, creating unfair competition and distorting the media market. In this way, a wide network of supportive media outlets is created, through which the media space is captured in order to spread political propaganda." (Conclusions)
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"The transparency of media market in Albania continues to be low, including both commercial operations and the state funding, despite of the existing databases. The involvement of new actors, such as advertising agencies, and sister companies of media outlets, makes it even more difficult to track s
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tate funding for the media, given in the form of advertising or funding to organise cultural events or public awareness campaigns. The fact that there is no central body to oversee and monitor the distribution of state advertising does not help. Furthermore, the absence of data from public companies that are not part of the state authorities makes it difficult to have a complete picture of the true extent of public funds allocated to the media." (Conclusions)
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"For this assessment more than 390 surveys were made in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey [...] In addition to the survey a further 150 in-depth interviews were held, complemented by a Focus Group in each country, which
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provided useful background and analytical information for the narrative parts of this report. The baseline assessment focused on the 4 objectives of the Guidelines: 1. Enabling environment and resulting responsibilities of main actors, 2. Advancing media to a modern level of internal governance, 3. Qualitative and trustworthy investigative journalism available to citizens and 4. Increasing capacity and representativeness of journalist professional organisations. In respect of the enabling environment the survey findings show that most countries have made reasonable or good progress in the field of establishing legislation and most have sufficient provisions to guarantee freedom of expression. However, there remains a serious problem in the proper implementation of the legislation ..." (Page 10)
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"During the years of Ba'athist dictator Saddam Hussein, media personnel were under tight control and tortured or executed when they strayed from the government line. In the decade following the fall of the Ba'athist regime, thousands of Iraqi journalists were trained in liberal democratic profession
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al norms, and hundreds of news outlets opened even as some of the old patronage practices and violence continued. This study utilized Shoemaker and Reese's hierarchy of influences model to examine factors influencing a proxy indicator for professional ethics, the value of conflict of interest avoidance among a purposive sample of Iraqi journalists (N = 588). We found that the news media routines and ideological levels, though not strong, had the greatest influences on this conflict of interest avoidance perception criterion indicator, the proxy for professional ethics. The findings suggest a tension between liberal democratic journalism training at the routines level and ideological aspects, in some cases, such as ethnic identity and political ideology. Strong influences on perceptions of conflict of interest avoidance were the type of media platform/Western journalism training, Arab ethnicity over Kurdish ethnicity, ideology of "democrat" over Kurdish nationalist or Islamist. No influence was apparent for Internet use frequency or state versus nonstate media." (Abstract)
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"The first section is dedicated to the definition of the concept of freedom of expression. First, international and regional texts are analyzed. Then, an overview of the bodies involved in the process of defining and protecting freedom of expression throughout the world is presented. The following s
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ections focus on specific matters related to the need to balance freedom of expression with other fundamental rights. Section two is devoted to the risk of incurring defamation, and how the issue is regulated in different regions of the world and under different circumstances. Section three analyses the relationship between freedom of expression and the right to privacy both in the texts and in the case law of the relevant international bodies. Section four deals with the limitation of freedom of expression for reasons of public order or public morals. Examples of restrictions grounded on public morals and public order are offered. Lastly, section five focuses on the relationship between freedom of expression and public security." (Pages 16-17)
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"This manual has been produced as a resource material for training workshops on media and freedom of expression law. It contains resources and background material to help trainers prepare and participants to understand the issues being discussed. It is expected that participants in the workshops wil
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l be primarily lawyers. The assumption is that they are qualified and competent lawyers, with experience of litigation, but not necessarily of media, freedom of expression or human rights law. The manual covers a wide variety of topics and it is not, of course, necessary that its entire contents be covered in a single workshop. However, it is expected that the material here could be covered in its entirety, albeit in a very introductory fashion, in a full three-day workshop." (Introduction)
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"A travers l'expérience de l'INRIC (Instance pour la Réforme de l'Information et de la Communication) en Tunisie, ce texte montre bien à la fois les défis et les difficultés auxquels sont confrontées les instances chargées de l'organisation du secteur des médias sur le continent africain. Co
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mment élaborer et imposer des critères clairs et objectifs pour attribuer les fréquences aux nouveaux opérateurs privés? Comment aider à la transformation des médias gouvernementaux en médias publics? Comment garantir les intérêts du public en imposant certains critères de professionnalisme aux médias locaux, mais aussi étrangers? Autant de questions qui se posent aujourd'hui en Tunisie, mais qui sont toujours d'actualité dans de nombreux pays d'Afrique subsaharienne où elles n'ont pas, jusqu'à présent, trouvé de réponse satisfaisante." (Introduction, page 9)
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"Esse Guia é decorrente de forte demanda do movimento social brasileiro, provocada pela proliferação de narrativas midiáticas que violam direitos elementares, previstos em lei. Capitaneada pela TV, a tendência espraia-se por outros meios e dilui as fronteiras entre jornalismo e entretenimento,
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afetando a credibilidade da imprensa e colocando em xeque as regras da democracia [...] No Volume I, o leitor encontra um guia prático para identificar violações de direitos no campo da comunicação de massa, com exemplos extraídos de programas de rádio e TV de todas as regiões do País, e um apanhado inédito dos dispositivos legais que buscam harmonizar o direito à liberdade de expressão com outros direitos dos cidadãos, como o de terem a imagem e a privacidade respeitadas." (Contracapa)
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"Esse Guia é decorrente de forte demanda do movimento social brasileiro, provocada pela proliferação de narrativas midiáticas que violam direitos elementares, previstos em lei. Capitaneada pela TV, a tendência espraia-se por outros meios e dilui as fronteiras entre jornalismo e entretenimento,
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afetando a credibilidade da imprensa e colocando em xeque as regras da democracia. [...] cidadãos, como o de terem a imagem e a privacidade respeitadas. No Volume II, são reunidos artigos que refletem o teor dos debates travados pela sociedade civil em relação às produções em foco. São reflexões de estudiosos, militantes e observadores em geral do campo, abrangendo diferentes perspectivas, a partir mesmo do perfil dos autores, oriundos da academia e de organizações que defendem a liberdade de expressão e o direito à comunicação." (Contracapa)
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"In the process of drafting new media laws for states emerging from violent confl ict, or transitioning towards more democratic governments, the role of customary law is often overlooked. While “best practices” or international standards draw on widely accepted norms of international human right
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s law, they also focus on the experience of media regulation that has emerged in Western countries promoted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international actors in the name of “freedom of expression.” The adoption of these norms and regulatory institutions is encouraged, often wholesale, with little attention to the local context." (Page 237)
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"La question de l'organisation du secteur des médias, à travers l'élaboration de cadres légaux et réglementaires adéquats, susceptibles de garantir le pluralisme et le respect d'un certain professionnalisme, conduit à se pencher sur les instances indépendantes de régulation de la communicat
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ion, qui sont au centre du texte proposé par Renaud de la Brosse. Au début des années 1990, ces instances sont apparues sur le continent, en particulier dans les pays francophones. Elles ont été mises en place à la fois pour répondre à des nécessités pratiques (l'octroi des fréquences dans le cadre des processus de libéralisation des ondes), politiques (la garantie de l'égal accès des forces politiques aux antennes des médias publics en période électorale) et démocratiques (l'imposition aux médias de missions de service public, en particulier pour ceux qui sont financés par les impôts du citoyen). Aujourd'hui, elles sont confrontées au défi de l'émergence des nouveaux médias, alors même que, bien souvent, elles ne sont pas encore parvenues à assurer leur indépendance vis-à-vis de l'exécutif et souffrent d'un manque de légitimité." (Introduction, page 8-9)
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"Unabhängige Medien befinden sich weltweit seit über einem Jahrzehnt in einer tiefen ökonomischen Krise. In Russland kommt massiver politischer Druck hinzu. In den vergangenen zehn Jahren wurden zahlreiche kritische Journalisten und Redakteure entlassen, Fernseh- und Radiosender geschlossen, Zeit
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ungen eingestellt. Der Grund ist immer scheinbar ökonomischer Natur. Tatsächlich aber hat der Staat die Möglichkeiten unabhängiger Finanzierung systematisch eingeschränkt. Wer überleben will, muss loyal zum Kreml sein. Medien, die dies verweigern, werden marginalisiert." (Abstract)
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