"For two years running, Pakistan has been ranked by international media monitors as the most dangerous place on earth for journalists. Media workers have been kidnapped, tortured, and beaten to death for delving into the nation’s potent military apparatus and spy agencies. Bodies have been found w
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ith throats slit and flesh punctured with electric drills by Islamic militants, political extremists, and gangsters who take umbrage at what they write." (Abstract)
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"The United Nations pointed out in 2010 that more Indians have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet. There are over 800 million mobile connections, although the number of unique users (excluding inactive connections) is estimated at around 600 million. Together with the fact that 60 percent of
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all households have cable and satellite television, providing access to many of the 700-plus television channels licensed to broadcast, it becomes clear that in garrulous India, mass poverty and marginalization do not result in a perfect “digital divide.” This, together with the fact that the public broadcaster’s prime terrestrial channel, DD National, covers about 92 percent of the 1.2 billion-plus population, clearly suggests that the users of digital technologies in India include many of the 300 million still below the official poverty line. In the case of the digital switchover, it is broadly in this area of public interest that most attention needs to be focused, whether it be in the area of greater accountability and autonomy of the state broadcaster, the governance of private media infrastructure, transparency and equity in licensing criteria and in mechanisms of allocating resources, and compliance with global standards of professional journalism. These values will go some way toward giving India a plurality of voices and media outlets that would properly reflect what may be the most diverse social and political landscape on the planet." (Open Society Foundations website)
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"The exponential media growth in Afghanistan over the last decade is due to the enthusiasm of Afghan entrepreneurs and to support from the United States and other nations, states this report. According to the executive summary "support from the United States, the biggest donor, has waxed and waned.
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From 2002 to 2005 USAID spend $23 million to launch news media outlets and train journalists, and from 2006 to 2010 funding totaled $20.64 million. That included a couple of lean years, 2007 and 2008, when spending was only $3.3 million each year. But with the Obama administration’s Afghan military surge of 2009 there also came a media spending surge. USAID funded a $22 million project called the Afghanistan Media Development and Empowerment Project (AMDEP) for 2011, and a separate $7 million project to put news on cellphones was put to bid. Meanwhile, $183 million was allocated to the U.S. embassy in Kabul for a wide array of media projects in 2010 and 2011. And the Defense Department budgeted $180 million for information operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for 2011 alone, some portion of which went to support Afghan media. The effectiveness of all this spending is difficult to gauge, but the smaller and more focused projects–such as creating new radio stations–tend to be seen as generally successful, while the value of the larger and broader projects–such as an anti-insurgency message campaign–is harder to judge." (Executive summary, page 4-5)
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"The study did not aim to carry out new surveys or collect information that was not already publicly available. Since the toolkit is aimed at providing media development organizations with a tool to assess media landscapes without having to carry out extensive new research, the Ghana study worked on
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ly with materials, surveys, and other information available at the time of writing. In testing the toolkit in Ghana, the study found that the indicators selected and the methodology based on collecting direct information and materials already available is a useful approach to create a comprehensive media landscape assessment. It allowed us to provide an overview of the situation in which media in Ghana operate and to identify areas for future media development programs." (Methodology, page 3)
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"Even though the Albanian media is relatively young, it went through a dynamic and fast development. Unlike other countries in the region, the change of the political system in 1991 not only led to the end of media monopolization by the government, but also to the disappearance of nearly all existin
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g media and the emergence of a range of new ones. Since 1991, the media landscape in Albania has been under a constant evolution, in most of its components. What is the current media situation in Albania? Have all the developments been positive for it since 1991? This study seeks to answer these questions through the examination of several criteria and the circumstances that affect the development of independent media. Thus, some of the considered factors turn out to be the legal regulation of media, the development of media landscape, the economic conditions affecting the development of media, the role of regulatory authorities, transparency of media ownership and financing, editorial independence as well as media ethics and education of journalists. Naturally, all these factors have been considered in terms of the impact they do have on the strengthening of media independence and freedom of expression in the Albanian society." (Page 1)
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"At the request of the Norwegian, Swedish and subsequently Danish Embassies in Bangkok, International Media Support (IMS) conducted an assessment of the current media environment inside Myanmar during two missions between July and November 2011. The assessment was motivated by a democratic reform pr
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ocess initiated in March 2011 when the 50-year reign of the military was replaced by a civilian government. A number of small steps taken so far by the Myanmar government in relation to media have provided an opening to expand the country’s freedom of expression space. The objective of the assessment was thus to identify opportunities and provide a set of recommendations for potential international interventions on media development within the country for the short and long-term perspective." (Executive summary)
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