"This book is meant to present the basics of freedom of information or right to information, defined as the universal right to access information held by public bodies. It presents in an easy-to-understand and non-technical fashion the basic principles of freedom of information, such as maximum disc
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losure, obligation to publish, promotion of open government, limited scope of exceptions and the process to facilitate access. In this new edition, the introduction, the comparative chapter, and the section on international standards and trends, have been totally revised. The country chapters provide an in-depth-analysis to the right of access in Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Uganda, United Kigdom and the USA. According to the author "since the last edition five years ago, we can now say that every region of the world has adopted right to information laws." (CAMECO Update 2-2008)
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"This book examines the development of television in India since the early 1990s, and its implications for Indian society more widely. Until 1991, India possessed only a single state-owned television channel, but since then there has been a rapid expansion in independent satellite channels which cam
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e as a complete break from the statist control of the past. This book explores this transformation, explaining how television, a medium that developed in the industrial West, was adapted to suit Indian conditions, and in turn has altered Indian social practices, making possible new ways of imagining identities, conducting politics and engaging with the state. In particular, satellite television initially came to India as the representative of global capitalism but it was appropriated by Indian entrepreneurs and producers who Indianized it. Considering the full gamut of Indian television - from "national" networks in English and Hindi to the state of regional language networks - this book elucidates the transformative impact of television on a range of important social practices, including politics and democracy, sport and identity formation, cinema and popular culture. Overall, it shows how the story of television in India is also the story of India's encounter with the forces of globalisation." (Publisher description)
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"The media have shaped and will continue to play a central role in shaping Kenya’s democracy. The recent record of the media, according to many within it, is that media has undermined as well as invigorated that democracy. An understanding of democracy and democratic governance in Kenya is not pos
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sible without a strong understanding of the media’s role in the country. We would urge development actors to be better engaged and more supportive of media in the future. The problem facing Kenya’s media is not an excess of media freedom. It is a lack of it. Media freedom cannot, however, be described simply in terms of ndependence from government. Journalists and broadcasters face immense commercial and political constraints which are constraining their journalistic independence and integrity. Some local language radio stations have incited fear and hatred particularly at the height of the violence. Local language radio stations are routinely partisan and fl out codes of ethics. Talk shows have provided the greatest opportunities for hate speech and talk show hosts are not trained in confl ict reporting or moderation. Nearly all we spoke to on the subject felt this was a priority. More recently, most local language stations (and much of the rest of the media) appear to have been playing an important role in calming tension and promoting dialogue. A strengthening of such a role by a genuinely independent media will form a critical contribution as Kenya navigates the turbulent waters ahead of it." (Summary of policy conclusions)
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"The Russian media are widely seen to be increasingly controlled by the government. Leaders buy up dissenting television channels and pour money in as fast as it haemorrhages out. As a result, TV news has become narrower in scope and in the range of viewpoints which it reflects: leaders demand assim
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ilation and shut down dissenting stations. Using original and extensive focus group research and new developments in cognitive theory, Ellen Mickiewicz unveils a profound mismatch between the complacent assumption of Russian leaders that the country will absorb their messages, and the viewers on the other side of the screen. This is the first book to reveal what the Russian audience really thinks of its news and the mental strategies they use to process it. The focus on ordinary people, rather than elites, makes a strong contribution to the study of post-communist societies and the individual's relationship to the media." (Publisher description)
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"Independent media have expanded and diversified in Afghanistan, though the country remains a precarious and hazardous place for journalists and media organisations. Nine journalists have been killed between January 1, 2007 and the writing of these lines (though one case remains a little unclear), w
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hile abductions, physical violence, threats and intimidation against journalists continue with worrying frequency. While the establishment of a number of print, broadcast and online media outlets creates an atmosphere of hope for the growth of free media in the country, attacks on journalists, death threats and intimidation from armed insurgency owing allegiance to the Taliban continue. Worryingly, there has also been an increasing trend of official and governmental sources, not to mention the various armed groups that continue to have immense influence in the national houses of parliament, to threaten and harass media and media workers. The threats are clearly intended to silence debate about the new Afghanistan, and to stifle the development of an independent and critical media through which such debate would be conducted.
Religious hardliners continue to apply pressure on the Government of President Hamid Karzai to impose or support harsh measures against individuals and institutions who do not bow to fundamentalist ideas about the direction of Afghan society. This is despite the clear guarantee in Afghanistan’s Constitution of the right of citizens to freedom of expression. The most prominent example is that of Sayed Parvez Kambakhsh, a young journalist with the Jahan-e-Naw weekly and a student at Balkh University, Mazar-e-Sharif, who was sentenced to death after a four-minute closed-door hearing in January 2008, on charges of blasphemy." (Page 3)
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"La première partie de l’étude vise à décrire autant le fonctionnement des médias congolais que le comportement de leurs publics, essentiellement à Kinshasa et dans les grandes villes de province. La seconde partie tâche de dresser un bilan des principales contraintes auxquelles sont confro
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ntés les journalistes congolais dans leur travail quotidien et de souligner les défis à relever afin que les médias congolais puissent contribuer efficacement à la consolidation de l’Etat de droit, de la paix et de la citoyenneté. En effet, la pluralité des médias n’est pas forcément synonyme de qualité de l’information du citoyen et, si les expériences positives et volontaristes ne manquent pas, un besoin de professionnalisation des acteurs du secteur des médias se fait encore sentir. A travers ce bilan succinct, mais franc et honnête, le présent document ambitionne d’être utile à la fois aux acteurs du secteur médiatique congolais, aux chercheurs qui souhaitent mieux connaître ce paysage dynamique et pluriel, et aux partenaires soucieux d’appuyer ces vecteurs d’information dont le rôle est capital pour l’avenir démocratique du Congo." (Dos de couverture)
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"This edition (2007/2008) continues the tradition of providing an analytical overview of the state of ICT4D in Asia Pacific. It covers 31 countries and economies, including North Korea for the first time. Each country chapter is an attempt to provide a relatively comprehensive coverage of the variou
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s aspects of ICT4D in each of the countries at the time that the chapter was written (in 2006). To provide a broad perspective of the issues covered, the chapters are written by a team of authors representing different sectors, such as government, academe, industry and civil society. There are also fi ve thematic chapters providing a synthesis of some of the key issues in ICT4D in Asia Pacific today." (Introduction, page xii)
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