"As this study shows, many of the more than 21,000 German foundations contribute a wealth of ideas, and substantial funding, to a wide variety of journalistic projects and grants. But only around 120 foundations profess express support of journalism in their statutes. Unfortunately, the total moneta
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ry value of their activities remains in the dark. A project of the not-for-profit ZEIT-Stiftung makes the case in point what a focused engagement can look like. The area of interest is in Eastern Europe, where preconditions for independent reporting are entirely different from Germany, and where information is hard to get hold of, or cannot be accessed at all. Between 2000 and 2016, ZEIT-Stiftung has been awarding its prestigious “Gerd Bucerius Prize for a Free Press in Eastern Europe” for a total of 17 times (from 2004 in cooperation with Norwegian Fritt Ord Foundation). In a trusting international cooperation, the two foundations have awarded 97 laureates – 40 journalists and 57 media outlets – with €1.7m overall. The aim: to strengthen independent journalism in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, both foundations have launched the follow up project “Free Media Awards. Supporting Independent Journalism in Eastern Europe“.
It is well worthwhile further to encourage foundations to engage with projects that contribute to better journalism and plurality of opinion. Support for, and the defence of, press freedom; the free flow of information; and improving journalistic standards remain on top of the agenda. Notably, this is precisely not about steering opinion-forming processes, peddling of influence, or surreptitious lobbying. Moreover, foundations are not positioned to mitigate the adverse effects that come with the erosion of traditional business and distribution models. Nor can they develop alternative sources of media revenue. But as actors of civic society, foundations can uphold the importance of journalism. They can insist on the diversity, quality, and relevance of journalism – values that are constitutive for an open society. They can do so, for instance, through endowed journalism professorships, or by way of training and exchange programmes for mid-career journalists." (Foreword, pages 5-6)
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"With regards to professional role orientations, journalists in El Salvador found it most important to report things as they are, to monitor and scrutinize political leaders, to educate the audience, and to let people express their views. The relevance of these roles was fairly undisputed among the
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interviewed journalists as the relatively low standard deviations indicate.
Still, a majority of journalists in El Salvador found it important to support national development, to promote tolerance and cultural diversity, to advocate for social change, to provide information people need to make political decisions, to influence public opinion, and to set the political agenda. Political roles like supporting government policy, conveying a positive image of political leadership, and acting as an adversary of the government were supported by only a minority of respondents." (Journalistic roles, pages 1-2)
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"The main points regarding the freedom of expression decrease in Ukraine include: the restriction of access to information channels (Russian books, TV channels, films, social networks, mail servers, etc.); persecution, in particular the detention and imprisonment of citizens expressing separatist vi
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ews in social networks; a mass prohibition on Russian journalists entering Ukraine, and those who were on temporarily uncontrolled territory (Crimea and Donbas). This is especially true for those who arrived in the area from the Russian Federation. In addition to this, so-called “patriotic” or loyalty-journalism became active as some journalists believe that in terms of war it is more important to participate in the information war against the enemy than just to be non-biased. Here also belong the calls not to criticize the authorities during war period, and the prolonged understatement of crimes committed by individual fighters of volunteer battalions. This led to a rapid fall of trust to Ukrainian media. According to the Institute of Sociology, the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, in 2016, only 21% of Ukrainian citizens trusted domestic media, while 51% did not. However, Ukrainian journalists should clearly understand their social role. In general, Niclas Louman is right, saying that we know about the world is taken from media. But if the media give a biased image, the audience will stop trusting. This is so, if a person is looking behind the window, and observes a different situation from that one previously watched or read. The audience is not helpless. It is possible to cheat on people once or twice but after all they will not believe this source of information anymore. This is a real tragedy for media as they lose the sense of existing. Thus, the goal of media as the information source is not just to report all recent news to the target audience, but also to ensure that the virtual picture of the world corresponds to the real one." (Editor's note, page 6)
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"Political parties do not exist in Iran. In this situation the media, particularly the newspapers, have assumed a central role in the political life of the country." (Publisher description)
"In 2016, television broadcasts were watched by 80 percent of the population, Slovak citizens did watch more programmes in their non-mother tongue than in other EU countries." (https://medialandscapes.org)
"This study examines the existence of criminal defamation and insult laws in the territory of the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In doing so, it offers a broad, comparative overview of the compliance of OSCE participating States’ legislat
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ion with international standards and best practices in the field of defamation law and freedom of expression. The primary purpose of the study is to identify relevant provisions in law. Although the study does include examples of the usage of these provisions, it is not an analysis of legal practice [...] The study is divided into two sections. The first section offers conclusions according to each of the principal categories researched and in reference to international standards on freedom of expression. The second section provides the detailed research findings for each country, including relevant examples. As the study’s title suggests, the primary research category is general criminal laws on defamation and insult. However, this study also covers special laws protecting the reputation or honour of particular persons or groups of people (e.g., presidents, public officials, deceased persons); special laws protecting the ‘honour’ of the state and state symbols; and blasphemy and religious insult laws." (About this study, page 2)
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"The media and political systems of former communist countries in Central/Eastern Europe share a number of similarities with those in Southern Europe. According to Karol Jakubowicz, these similarities also include late democratisation, a weak middle class, marked social and economic differences, a s
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trong catholicism, etc. Where are the third-wave democracies to date, particularly as regards their media systems? And where are they heading for? This volume with his differents talks of a joint conference in 2016 attempts to answer these questions and many more." (Publisher description)
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"Governments around the world have dramatically increased their efforts to manipulate information on social media over the past year. The Chinese and Russian regimes pioneered the use of surreptitious methods to distort online discussions and suppress dissent more than a decade ago, but the practice
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has since gone global. Such state-led interventions present a major threat to the notion of the internet as a liberating technology. Online content manipulation contributed to a seventh consecutive year of overall decline in internet freedom, along with a rise in disruptions to mobile internet service and increases in physical and technical attacks on human rights defenders and independent media. Nearly half of the 65 countries assessed in Freedom on the Net 2017 experienced declines during the coverage period, while just 13 made gains, most of them minor. Less than one-quarter of users reside in countries where the internet is designated Free, meaning there are no major obstacles to access, onerous restrictions on content, or serious violations of user rights in the form of unchecked surveillance or unjust repercussions for legitimate speech." (Page 1)
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"Despite political and economic progress, the media face increasing political influence and financial instability that threaten the future. This year panelists affirmed the current financial crisis that the media industry is facing. They noted its impact on media freedom and progress, as it relates
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to ownership and transparency. Panelists also highlighted the evolution of digital technology, a proliferation of online platforms, and a lack of accountability as the emerging issues affecting the industry." (Page 1)
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"Cette étude présente une évaluation du développement des médias à Madagascar dans un contexte de retour au fonctionnement démocratique des institutions suite à la crise politique des années 2009-2013 qui s’est traduite par une forte instabilité politique et un marasme économique. Elle
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est basée sur les Indicateurs de Développement des Médias (IDM) de l’UNESCO. Son intervention devrait constituer un outil pour la promotion du développement des médias." (Résumé exécutif)
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"Afghanistan has made great strides in establishing media and communications outlets. However, very little is known about the ways in which Afghans actually engage in information exchange. To inform work with the media and effectively enhance access to information in Afghanistan, Internews commissio
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ned Sayara Research to map information ecosystems in three areas of Afghanistan. The information ecosystem in Afghanistan is vital to understand how Afghans make decisions about everything from personal security to health, migration, and livelihoods. Using a systems approach to analyzing information within and across communities is a powerful way to uncover deficiencies in current approaches and opportunities for future work." (Internews website)
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"This paper aims to understand the motivations, decision-making processes, and missions of the producers of new Cuban media using interviews with journalists recruited from the wider group of twenty non-governmental publications. In ten semi-structured interviews, participants described their person
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al and professional motivations and their understandings of the missions of their publications. Through conversations with participants, I also investigated the problem of operating media on the margins of legality in Cuba, and how this influences decisions about management, agenda setting and news coverage. Ultimately, the visions of new media producers about what they are doing and why they are doing it sometimes overlap, and at other times, contradict one another. However, to understand Cuba’s emerging new media landscape, it is important to understand the plurality of visions among the risk-taking innovators who produce new media content for Cuban citizens. I interviewed ten individual producers working for independent new media publications in the spring of 2017." (Methodology, page 5)
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"Compared to five years ago, internet penetration rose in all six countries surveyed and most dramatically in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia. Smartphone ownership tracks closely with internet use in the six surveyed countries. Nearly all nationals in Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE own a sma
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rtphone compared with 83% of Jordanians and 65% of Tunisians. Use of Arabic online has increased proportionally with the increase in internet users. In comparison, use of the internet in English remains essentially flat, 25% in 2013 and 28% in 2017, despite the increase in internet use. As internet penetration rises, nationals are less likely to be using offline media platforms compared with 2013. Most nationals still watch TV, but the rate declined modestly since 2013 (98% in 2013 vs. 93% in 2017). Rates of newspaper readership, however, declined more sharply from 47% in 2013 to 25% in 2017. Radio and magazines also declined in popularity since 2013 (radio: 59% in 2013 vs. 49% in 2017; magazines: 26% in 2013 vs. 19% in 2017)." (Executive summary, page 10)
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"Power in Brazil means family business, both traditionally and to this very day. Dynasties of landowners known as “Colonels” extend their territorial claims to the airwaves, combining economic and political interests with tight control of public opinion. Neither digital technology and the rise o
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f the internet nor occasional regulatory efforts seem to pose a serious challenge to these oligopolies. A joint investigation by the Brazilian NGO Intervozes and Reporters Without Borders between July and October 2017 now shows who are the key players and what are their respective other interests. The investigation comprises the 50 most important media outlets in Brazil and the 26 corporate groups owning them. Transparency about ownership of media companies remains low as there is no legal obligation for companies to disclose their shareholder structure." (http://www.mom-rsf.org)
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"The Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) reveals a high level of audience concentration in various media sectors. An almost maximum concentration was found among the printed press, where the top four media companies (Graphic Communications Group Limited, New Times Corporation, Western Publications Limited
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, Business and Financial Times Limited) together reach 95.9% of the readership. Three out of four readers (72.1%) choose a state-run newspaper for information or entertainment. Private companies on the other hand dominate the broadcasting sector. A high concentration exists in the TV segment, where the top four owners (Multimedia Group, Osei Kwame with U2 Company Ltd. /Despite Group of Companies, TV3 Network/ Media General Ghana Limited, state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation) represent an audience share of 77.4%. The radio market is more diverse and ‘market leaders’ differ from region to region. Again the Multimedia Group and the Despite Group of Companies have a considerable market position by operating several nationwide outlets. All in all, radio shows a medium level of audience concentration around the four market leaders that together deliver news to 44.8% of the listenership." (http://www.mom-rsf.org)
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"Nine of the 36 media companies involved in Morocco’s most influential media are directly linked to the state, the government or the royal family. Four of them – SOREAD, SNRT, EcoMedias and Horizon Press – are among the most important media companies in terms of turnover and show the potential
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influence of politically linked media owners. The royal family itself is a leading media owner. Its holding company, the Société Nationale d’Investissement (SNI), has shares in four media companies, three of which are among the top five media companies (SOREAD, EcoMedias and Radio Méditerranée Internationale). One of the key questions raised by the MOM’s findings is why leading figures from the business and financial world invest in newspapers that make no profit. Some of Morocco’s richest businessmen have stakes in five of the nine French-language publications examined by the MOM: Aujourd’hui Le Maroc, La Vie Eco, Les Inspirations Eco, La Nouvelle Tribune and L’Economiste. Two of these businessmen, Aziz Akhannouch and Moulay Hafid Elalamy, are also government ministers." (http://www.mom-rsf.org)
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"National and Regional Internet Governance Forums (NRIs) are the stars of the 2017 Global Information Society Watch. The story of NRIs began two years after the first global IGF held in 2006. In 2008, stakeholders from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda organised national forums and a subsequent Eas
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t African IGF, to prepare for and discuss common concerns in anticipation of the global forum held later that year in Hyderabad. Soon after, many other national and regional initiatives emerged, impacting the global forum from the bottom up, enhancing inclusiveness and the broad engagement of multiple stakeholders. Today there is widespread agreement that national and regional forums constitute an important part of the IGF process, that their rise has added significance to the global forum and, at the same time, strengthened national and regional initiatives in their quest for inclusive, participatory decision making on their home turf. This GISWatch edition is the first comprehensive look at national and regional IGF initiatives from a critical, civil society perspective. In all, 54 reports are presented, including seven reports addressing cross-cutting themes, 40 covering national IGFs, and seven examining regional initiatives." (Preface)
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"It is precisely to counterbalance what are largely “outsider” views in the main edition of Global Information Society Watch that we wanted this companion edition to capture the origin stories, achievements and challenges of National and Regional IGF Initiative (NRI) in their own words. Their st
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ruggles should not be taken for granted. Behind each are people who have worked extremely hard, dedicating time, most often on a voluntary basis, or on top of already demanding jobs, to convince people to participate, and, particularly challenging, to provide financial support. Like the global Internet Governance Forum (IGF), most NRIs are still learning, trying to be stronger, find their feet, gain legitimacy, and achieve effectively balanced stakeholder participation and debate. They face huge constraints – financial, but also often political. Each has its own dynamics and will follow its own path and will hopefully benefit from the support provided by the IGF Secretariat and the NRI community." (Preface)
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