"Since the beginning of the 1970s, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung has taken a holistic approach to its support of the media in its international and European cooperation efforts. What started as individual training projects for senior journalists and the support of communications studies in Latin America then became a range of activities within the regional media programme for Latin America at the beginning of the 1990s. The transnational approach was so successful from the start that the foundation started another media programme in Asia in 1996. The programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and in Southeast Europe followed in 2002 and 2007. Free and independent media are central to any democratic system. Promoting them is the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s mission and responsibility. We hope to contribute to ensuring that the media perform their role in the development and stabilisation of democracy worldwide, and live up to their political responsibility." (Foreword, page 3)