"Two out of three Malaysians regularly use the internet (even though large areas of the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, where nearly a fifth of the population lives, pose logistical challenges regarding infrastructure) and a third of the population have a 3G mobile subscription. Broadban
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d household penetration in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, is 112 percent because many citizens have both fixed and mobile accounts. Nearly half the population is on Facebook with an average of 233 friends each, the greatest proportion in the world, all on social networks for an average nine hours a week. And they still seem to find enough time to watch television for three and a half hours a day and to listen to the radio for three hours. The outlook is for an expansion of internet and mobile-based platforms for news, comment, social networking, activism, and entertainment. However, a change of government is probably a prerequisite for the kinds of changes that would usher in greater diversity in broadcast and print, such as regulatory independence, repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Act, and the dismantling of monopolies, rules on cross ownership, and political parties’ ownership of media companies." (Open Society Foundations website)
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"After a significant delay, the transition to digital terrestrial broadcasting in Bulgaria is scheduled to be finished in 2013. While cable television appears to have peaked since 2007, satellite television continues to increase its penetration, more often through bundled services. On the other hand
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, Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is also growing, albeit from a low base. Although Bulgarians enjoy some of the fastest internet connections in the world, overall broadband penetration is low. However, except for the ubiquitous popularity of torrent trackers, there is a lack of e-government services and on-demand audiovisual content. Press and radio are declining in revenue, and the press in particular has welcomed investors with hidden sources of financing that use newspapers for their own business interests. Shedding more light on media ownership, prohibiting concentration, and securing sustainable business models for quality news outlets remain key." (Open Society Foundations website)
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"In online journalism, the virtues associated with ethics—accuracy, honesty, truth, impartiality, fairness, balance, respect for autonomy of ordinary people—are barely respected, largely because there is no effective way of policing this, and there are no legal penalties. Concentration of owners
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hip has increased in the last five years and transparency in ownership of media has improved only slightly over the past five years. The government controls media licensing—a process that is shrouded in secrecy, so that it is difficult to establish who owns which media house. The overall framework of policy and law is not yet adequate for digitized media in Kenya. The national ICT policy of 2006 committed the government to support and encourage pluralism and diversity. While this led to a proliferation of channels, it did not do much for content diversity due to the level of concentration of media. A lack of resources to build the digital infrastructure, consumer ignorance of what the switch means and whether the public can afford the end-user devices are some of the challenges faced in Kenya’s digital switchover." (Open Society Foundations website)
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"The conference, held in Mid-December, was funded by the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and UNESCO South Sudan. It consisted of two streams. One focussed on media and sustainability, the other on open data and open knowledge models. Rather than just holding lectures, the event saw working groups
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come together to discuss both themes. Three days of debate and discussion were attended by around 70 people from all over South Sudan, including senior editors and young journalists, representatives from civil society organisations as well as government officials and members of parliament, diplomats and experts. This paper documents the theme of media and sustainability. The following six chapters summarize the lively discussions between international guests – mostly Africans who presented innovative solutions from Africa, for Africa – and the local participants. The results of those discussions may contribute to creating a more sustainable media sector in the newest nation of the world. Truly independent media may be a long way off in South Sudan, but a more diverse multi-dependency seems an achievable goal in the foreseeable future. After all, nascent South Sudan still has the chance to avoid the mistakes that have damaged the plurality of expression in more developed countries. The attendees demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to overcoming those challenges." (Dear reader, page 3)
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"El objetivo del estudio es conocer cuántos medios digitales tiene el Ecuador y determinar los niveles de actualización, secciones, hipertextualidad, multimedialidad, interactividad, redes sociales y herramientas multimedia que están empleando; esto permite comprender los procesos y lógicas de t
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rabajo de los medios de comunicación digitales [...] La muestra útil alcanzó 254 medios de comunicación, de los cuales la mayorÃa pertenece a medios tradicionales, periódicos, radios, revistas, canales de televisión y únicamente 34 medios de comunicación nativos digitales." (Resúmen, página 5)
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"South Africa’s news media has become, in the post-1994 democratic era, among the most concentrated in the world, affecting the quality of its content and the sales of its newspapers. A significant decrease in international development support, and post-1994 changes to the nature of that support,
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has exacerbated that process. The few cases in which dedicated, targeted support has been provided have, in sharp contrast, contributed to the development of islands of investigative journalism excellence able to exercise influence both on other media and on broader South African society." (Preface, page 5)
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This report addresses the state of the media in Syria; the laws that regulate and restrict the media, and the attacks on the media and journalists. The report also provides a Media Map, a list of print and online publications, radio and TV stations in Syria. According to the conclusion, "the interna
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tional community and media development organizations should provide funding and training courses for media establishments in Syria that are committed to professional and objective reporting and that promote diversity and tolerance in the country."
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"Digitization has had profound effects in Brazil. In journalism, information flows faster than ever, and from a greater number of sources; journalists have to adapt to an environment that demands immediate coverage of events, sometimes privileging speed over content. The internet has become the seco
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nd main source of news, and the number of people reading newspapers online has nearly tripled over four years. Brazilians are heavy users of social media and user-generated content platforms, with Facebook and YouTube being the second and fourth most accessed URLs in September 2013. Access to mobile telecommunications is widespread, and there are more SIM cards circulating in Brazil than there are Brazilians. However, serious gaps in internet regulation topics such as net neutrality, ISP liability, privacy, and user rights still have not been addressed by legislation. In an attempt to fill these gaps, the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet), a draft bill produced through a process of public online debate carried out by the Ministry of Justice, was sent to the National Congress in 2011. The text faced strong opposition from some quarters, and the bill has not yet been introduced in Congress." (Publisher description)
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"The research for this report was developed and undertaken between June 2012 and April 2013 across 14 Pacific Island nations: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Nauru, Niue, Republic of Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon I
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slands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The report provides a regional overview of the PACMAS key components (Media Policy, Media Systems, Media Capacity Building and Media Content) as they emerged through 212 interviews focused upon the six PACMAS strategic areas. It also provides basic background information, an overview of the media and communications landscape and discusses in detail media and communications technicians; emergency broadcast systems, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs), media associations, climate change and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). For this reason, observations on the four PACMAS components should be understood to represent changes in the media and communication environment based upon an investigation focused on the PACMAS strategic activities." (www.pacmas.org)
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"The objective of this IST Briefing Note issue is to provide an up to date list of Somali media outlets. The aim of this paper is to help relevant actors understand the landscape of Somali media and use this information in order to guide their engagement and approach with Somali media outlets. Based
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on empirical research this review includes: key findings; a brief presentation of the media observatory project; followed by a list of all media outlets (Radios, TV, print and news websites) according to their geographic location in South/Central Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland." (Page 1)
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"Pakistan has long suffered from high inflation, led by soaring food prices, which has increased poverty levels. According to the United Nations’ 2011 Human Development Report, half the population suffers deprivations of all types. Only half is literate. Even then there are only 12 million televis
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ion sets (surely a desirable medium for those who cannot read)—one for every 14 people. This means a lot of communal watching of mostly state-owned channels of the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). At present, the only other terrestrial television channel is the privately owned ATV, in which PTV and the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation are majority (80 percent) shareholders. The sameness is deafening. However, urban Pakistanis are getting richer and spending money on alternatives. Thus PTV has ceded ground to more than 20 privately owned broadcasters with 89 domestic and 26 foreign channels, with national television viewing split evenly between terrestrial on the one hand, and cable and satellite on the other. This proliferation of channels has enabled Pakistani media to wield more influence over politics and public discourse than ever before. With this growing influence comes, however, a corresponding increase in attempts by the government to control media outlets. Indeed, state coercion and increasing censorship are among the greatest pressures on the media industry." (Website Open Society Foundations)
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