Document details

Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster Free and Independent News Around the World

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2008), 96 pp.

ISBN 978-0-9818254-0-3

CC-like licence

Signature commbox: 201:10-Cooperation 2008

"This report provides an assessment of U.S. international media development efforts, both public and private, and calls on future efforts to be more long-term, comprehensive, and need-driven. Recommending a more holistic assistance approach, the report looks at the international media development field from a number of perspectives: funding, professional development, education, the legal-enabling environment, economic sustainability, media literacy, new media, and monitoring and evaluation. The report's recommendations include: establishing media development as its own sector of international assistance rather than only as a part of other development efforts as is the current trend; taking longer-term approaches to projects; engaging the local media community more in project designand implementation; improving journalists' professional skills and ethical standards; providing greater support to improve the legal-enabling environment; emphasizing media literacy; building stronger media management skills; integrating new technology; refining monitoring and evaluation methods; improving coordination among donors and implementers; integrating communication for development strategies in overall media assistance efforts." (CAMECO Update 5-2008)