"Thailand faces the dual challenge of swiftly navigating the disruptions caused by COVID-19 while also enabling sustainable and inclusive development. To enable inclusive development, Thailand must focus on building resilience and enhancing the productivity of micro, small and medium enterprises (MS
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MEs), which form the backbone of its economy. Mobile, digital and frontier technologies have a key role to play in this process. Supporting the resilience, growth and profitability of MSMEs and rural communities is therefore critical to meeting Thailand's strategic objective of sustainable and inclusive development. This report explores the role of mobile and frontier technologies in supporting the development, success and resilience of rural MSMEs in Thailand's agriculture and tourism sectors. The adoption of digital technologies can help increase efficiency, improve product/service quality and increase business opportunities, leading to greater productivity, competitiveness and wellbeing." (Executive summary, page 4)
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"This electronic publication about smart education strategies for building the resilience of education and training systems in the postpandemic environment provides a framework to develop appropriate policy and strategy in existing and emerging forms of schooling, higher education, technical and voc
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ational education, and training (TVET), adult education and lifelong learning, including formal, nonformal and informal educational environments. While the discussion takes a historical view, it is also forward-looking and future-oriented. It hopes to contribute to ongoing, evolving conversations and debates on appropriate smart education policy development. The publication reviews the status of smart education policies in 10 countries. It includes 15 case studies within the six policy themes: infrastructure, curriculum and pedagogy, digital education resources and platforms, skills and competencies, governance, management and administration, and partnership. A policy template and a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating smart education policy implementation included in the publication would help the UNESCO Member States adopt smart education policies and strategies." (Back cover)
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"This report is intended to provide a broad review of the use and emerging governance of AI technology in Southern Africa. It aims at initiating public discussions and policy dialogue not only on the technological implications of the use of AI, but also on the social, political, and ethical signific
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ance and consequences of it. Through this report, UNESCO’s objective is also to provide the evidence that AI technologies are already being used in many domains and sectors in Southern Africa, thus countering the narrative that the ethics of AI is still premature to be discussed and taken seriously by the local actors in the region. The analysis comprises four parts that, read together, present a review of key policies, use cases, risks and opportunities for the design, development, governance and usage of responsible AI in the region. These are: (i) AI Regulatory and Policy Mapping; (ii) Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Applications; (iii) Ethical Risk of AI Use (derived from the findings in the policy mapping and use case analysis); and (iv) Key Opportunities and Recommendations." (Introduction)
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"This edition comes at a time when the Caribbean is in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic which has severely tested the viability and resilience of a wide variety of national and regional institutions. The media industry has not been spared. We have therefore attempted to capture some main elements
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of this challenge even as we present to readers some principal features of Caribbean media and their contribution to public life. This is however not meant to be an exhaustive exposition. It has been researched and written by media practitioners in communion with regional colleagues who have presented their views and impressions on a wide variety of issues." (Foreword)
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"It aims at providing a holistic view of digital transformation in the agriculture sector of 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The region’s digital agriculture landscape is assessed through six key themes, namely: infrastructure, digital penetration, policy and regulation, business environment,
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human capital and agro-innovation. Beyond the analysis of the region against the six focal themes, the report presents both the status-quo and challenges faced by countries in their digital transformation journeys, which can assist policymakers to identify possible areas of intervention to drive the process of agricultural digitalization in the region. It highlights the need to strengthen digital infrastructure for universal connectivity, to connect the unconnected in sub-Saharan Africa and to support the integration of digital technologies to advance digital agricultural transformation." (Foreword)
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"Across the types of issues that child protection workers were facing, forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse with an online element were indicated in 18% of their total caseloads. This means that one in five children they were supporting had related concerns. It is noted this was a convenienc
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e sample, and organisations supporting issues related to child abuse were targeted for participation in the survey, yet this is still a strong indication of the extent of this concern at the frontline. Under-reporting of child sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as the under-identification of the role of technology and the Internet in cases, may also be an issue. Girls were more frequently identified as being subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse online, with about 54% of workers saying that online forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse were emerging in ‘more than half’ of their cases with girls." (Key findings, page 9)
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"New data sources related to socio-economic development should improve journalistic reporting. Still, despite an abundance of open data in Kyrgyzstan, journalists may face delays in getting quick access to important datasets. Goal: To facilitate the access to development-related information for jour
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nalists working with data on socio-economic issues, Zerkalo conducted a mapping study, identifying all the open data sources in Kyrgyzstan and putting together a comprehensive database. Methods: Relying on a two-stage desk research approach, the Zerkalo team constructed a database containing open data sources in Kyrgyzstan. The main data collection phase for the mapping study was conducted from February 14 to March 10, 2022. Overall, the research team examined 1986 hyperlinks to 131 websites, holding relevant datasets. As a result, Zerkalo identified 389 datasets on socio-economic themes, which were included in the database." (Executive summary, page 4)
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"Esta publicación presenta información sobre el mercado de los medios de comunicación en Nicaragua, sobre cómo la población los percibe y cuáles son los hábitos de la audiencia en el consumo de la información. Además, ofrece recomendaciones para mejorar la viabilidad de los medios [...] Los
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resultados presentados abajo se refieren a las respuestas obtenidas de las 841 personas que participaron en la encuesta. Los periódicos digitales son los medios más preferidos para informarse, seguidos por la televisión y las redes sociales. La información que más se consume son las noticias nacionales, específicamente políticas. Un 87 por ciento manifiesta leer noticias por lo menos una vez al día y un 65 por ciento incluso varias veces al día. La gran mayoría no prefiere un día en específico para leer, pero sí prefiere leer temprano en el día o por la noche. El celular es el dispositivo preferido para leer noticias. Los medios más consumidos son los considerados más confiables: la versión digital de Confidencial y La Prensa, seguidos por Canal 10. Los medios oficialistas están entre los que menos se consideran confiables. Las principales razones por confiar en un medio son: noticias objetivas e información veraz, la independencia del medio, el profesionalismo de sus periodistas y la verificación de fuentes." (Resumen ejecutivo, página 4-6)
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"The commercial advertising industry in Sierra Leone is in a parlous state – unstructured, uncoordinated and unregulated. The shambolic nature of the industry stems from three major shortcomings – a lack of policy regulation, a limited market, and poor professional practices. Existing policy whi
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ch exists only at the level of the Independent Media Commission (IMC) - the body tasked with regulating the media, public relations and advertising practices in accordance with the Independent Media Commission Act, 2020 – is limited to ethical considerations. Just one section (Section 4) of the Media Code of Practice is dedicated to the advertising industry. In the context of the advertising market itself, Sierra Leone has a modest economy with little competition, especially in the private sector. Brand advertising opportunities are few and far between and the government, which is among the leading advertisers in the country, is regarded as a bad debtor, particularly where paying fees to the media industry is concerned. Furthermore, rather than seeking to get value for money, government ministries, departments and agencies are widely suspected of using a system of political patronage and kickbacks when allocating and/or distributing advertising contracts to the media." (Executive summary)
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"The 2022 Europe and Eurasia Vibrant Information Barometer (VIBE) sees the addition of the five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) to the study, bringing the total number of countries examined to 18. With VIBE, IREX strives to capture a moder
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n and evolving media space where people are simultaneously producers, transmitters, consumers, and actors in the information that influences their lives and environments [...] For countries in Europe and Eurasia (E&E) included in this year’s publication, country-level scores were, again, mainly split into two VIBE classifications: Somewhat Vibrant (North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine) and Slightly Vibrant (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Serbia). Azerbaijan held the lowest score in E&E, putting it in the Not Vibrant classification. In Central Asia, this year’s study put Kyrgyzstan the Somewhat Vibrant category, while Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan were Slightly Vibrant. While Uzbekistan’s score characterized it as Slightly Vibrant, Turkmenistan joined Azerbaijan in the Not Vibrant classification." (Executive summary)
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"To illustrate the dynamics of the digital information ecosystem and how disinformation is seeded within this environment, Rappler explored cascades around the following themes: war on drugs, attacks against the press, and messaging around Martial Law and authoritarian rule. The themes were selected
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based on prevailing issues that have confronted the Philippines and the Duterte administration over the past 6 years. These are findings of the study specific to the Philippine context: Already addicted to social media, Filipinos became more deeply immersed in the internet due to the pandemic; [...] At least 1 in every 3 Filipino internet users is new to digital, is potentially unfamiliar with how it works, and vulnerable to disinformation and online manipulation techniques [...] News organizations are still among the most followed information sources online. But they are increasingly drowned in social media noise [...] Trustworthiness is the primary consideration in following groups, pages, and channels on social media. But entertainment value and agreeableness are also major considerations, making audiences vulnerable to sources that deceptively use celebrity content to build online following [...] Majority (78%) of survey respondents say they can distinguish between real news and “fake news,” but focus group discussions (FGDs) reveal that some believed previously debunked claims [...] There are similarities between disinformation in the Philippines and the “Firehose of Falsehood” Russian propaganda model ..." (Executive summary, pages 7-12)
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"As for internet use, the percentage of the population with access to internet rose to 89% in 2019 from 48% in 2015. Access to a mobile phone and internet in Jordan has become a matter of choice rather than affordability or accessibility. The Syrian refugee crisis explains the overshooting in mobile
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phone penetration in Jordan during the 2010s. During the past decade, the Jordanian telecommunications industry has transformed from duopoly to oligopoly. Jordan’s three major telecommunications companies together worked to protect their positions in the Jordanian telecoms market. The market saw constant growth and a rapid introduction of new media technologies. Due to these technological advancements, the country has become known in the region as an increasingly influential tech hub [...] In the public sphere, Jordan has experienced an unstable legal and regulatory landscape for the media. The government constantly revises its audiovisual media and publications laws. This places those media networks with a proximity to the state at an advantage, since they have deeper insight into the expectations of the state. Independent media, on the other hand, suffers from the successive governments’ meddling in the foundational laws of the media industry. The work of journalists has been often obstructed by the blocking of hundreds of websites for failing to comply with one or another rendition of the publications law. Many journalists found their employers losing investors and/or funding after the state issued a registration requirement for websites publishing content out of Jordan. Due to strong public pressure, this requirement in the publications law was later revised. Jordan’s journalism sphere had a more difficult decade than the technology field. Restrictions on internet access and high taxes on independent media (compared with tax-exemption status for some media agencies that are close to the government) hurt several media organizations. Stagnation and decline in consumption of print media added to the woes. Jordanian newspapers are enjoying higher readership than ever but also the lowest revenues per reader in history. This is due to declining subscription rates. Jordanian journalists were stunned in the first half of the 2010s to see Jordan’s daily newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm end print circulation and shut down operations completely a few years later. Subscriptions to daily newspapers declined by 50% compared to their 2000s levels." (Pages 4-5)
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"The article provides an overview of the Croatian media landscape and its transformation that has been driven by the processes of democratization, commercialization and digitalization. The main media-related concerns from 1990 to 2000 were freedom of the press, autonomy of journalism and censorship.
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The liberalization of the media market that started in 2000, led to proliferation of media outlets and galloping commercialization of media ownership and content. The next big change came with digitalization that fundamentally altered media habits of Croatian audiences. Television was preceded by online media as the main source of news while the press registers constant decline in readership, trust and advertising revenues. Radio remains the most trusted medium, as opposed to social media that are the least trusted source of information. Nevertheless, the level of trust in social networks in Croatia is considerably higher than the EU average. The data on media freedom and journalistic autonomy indicate that Croatia has made significant progress in this respect in the past thirty years. Although problems related to freedom, autonomy and political pressure persist, the biggest threat to journalism nowadays seems to come from within the profession. Commercialization, coupled with digitalization and merciless struggle for survival, eventually led news media to succumb to tabloid-style journalism and to radically downplay their professional standards." (Abstract)
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"This report is the product of an effort to understand the scale and scope of “transnational repression,” in which governments reach across national borders to silence dissent among their diaspora and exile communities. Freedom House assembled cases of transnational repression from public source
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s, including UN and government documents, human rights reports, and credible news outlets, in order to generate a detailed picture of this global phenomenon.
The project compiled a catalogue of 608 direct, physical cases of transnational repression since 2014. In each incident, the origin country’s authorities physically reached an individual living abroad, whether through detention, assault, physical intimidation, unlawful deportation, rendition, or suspected assassination. The list includes 31 origin states conducting physical transnational repression in 79 host countries. This total is certainly only partial; hundreds of other physical cases that lacked sufficient documentation, especially detentions and unlawful deportations, are not included in Freedom House’s count. Nevertheless, even this conservative enumeration shows that what often appear to be isolated incidents—an assassination here, a kidnapping there—in fact represent a pernicious and pervasive threat to human freedom and security.
Moreover, physical transnational repression is only the tip of the iceberg. The consequences of each physical attack ripple out into a larger community. And beyond the physical cases compiled for this report are the much more widespread tactics of “everyday” transnational repression: digital threats, spyware, and coercion by proxy, such as the imprisonment of exiles’ families. For millions of people around the world, transnational repression has become not an exceptional tool, but a common and institutionalized practice used by dozens of regimes to control people outside their borders." (Executive summary)
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"Written just prior to the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan, this new report from Shorenstein Center Fellow Samiullah Mahdi provides an overview of the media landscape in Afghanistan, and the threats to and opportunities for press freedom in the region." (Introduction)