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“Priorities Were Chosen by Donors”: A Critical Review of International Media Assistance in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

Hazrat Bahar, Anja Wollenberg

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 15, issue 1 (2025), 23 pp.

"This study presents findings from research on international media development strate-gies and practices in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021. Based on qualitative interviews with 35 Afghan journalists in Afghanistan, the research offers a retroactive assessment of key patterns in International Medi ... more

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Long-Term Investments Pay Dividends in Ukraine

Antonina Cherevko, Maksym Dvorovyi

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 27 pp.

"International assistance actors have played an important role in supporting media reforms in Ukraine. Their long-term, continuous efforts planted the seeds for groundbreaking media environment changes during Ukraine’s democratic transition. International donors’ sustained engagement in Ukraine ... more

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Long-Term Investments Pay Dividends in Ukraine

Antonina Cherevko, Maksym Dvorovyi

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 8 pp.

"Since gaining independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has lurched along an unsteady path toward accountable democratic governance. Yet despite the country's volatile politics and the escalating conflict with Russia leading up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in ... more

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Media Reform in Tunisia: A Volatile Process

Fatima el Issawi

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 25 pp.

"The halting progress of the Tunisian media reform reflects the uncertainty and vulnerability of the political reform. As Professor of Communication and Democracy Katrin Voltmer contends, emerging media systems are unique types that are a blend of inherited structures, the constraints of the transit ... more

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Media Reform in Tunisia: A Volatile Process

Fatima el Issawi

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 8 pp.

"President Saied’s moves to undermine constitutional governance and Tunisia’s parliament pose a major challenge for further media reforms. Yet, should the political environment prove enabling, foreign donors, media assistance organizations, and other stakeholders should prioritize working with l ... more

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Media Reform Amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine
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Tarik Jusic, Heather Gilberds

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 36 pp.

"This study points to several recommendations for how international donors can improve support for media sector reform in countries at critical political junctures, and how they can build upon and strengthen approaches that have been effective in the past. Donor support is more likely to be effectiv ... more

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Whispered Support: Two Decades of International Aid for Independent Journalism and Free Expression

Jane Madlyn McElhone, Lisa Brooten

In: Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change

Lisa Brooten; Jane Madlyn McElhone; Gayathry Venkiteswaran (eds.)

Singapore: ISEAS (2019), pp. 95-130

"This chapter is drawn primarily from Jane Madlyn McElhone's thirteen years of in-field experience in Myanmar and other nations in transition, as well as key informant interviews she conducted in 2017 and 2018 [...] Our discussion is driven by a series of interlinked questions. Who were the key medi ... more

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Implicit Counterinsurgency: Media, Development and Security in Afghanistan

Nicholas Ross Zevely

George Washington University, Master Thesis (2016), iv, 69 pp.

"This paper focuses on post-September 11, 2001 media assistance in Afghanistan at the confluence of the development and defense sectors, otherwise known as the security-development nexus. It is out of this nexus that a burgeoning press-state system developed amid an ongoing conflict between the Gove ... more

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Contributing to Change: Supporting Zimbabwe's Media

International Media Support (IMS) (2015), 50 pp.

"It is my pleasure to introduce this report on the contribution of International Media Support and our partners to important changes in the Zimbabwean media sector over the past decade. Impact—or ‘contribution towards change’ as we term it in this report— is often an elusive, hard-to-illustr ... ate product of our combined efforts as media development organisations, donors and partners in the contexts in which we work. But, as this report and the methodology behind it hopefully demonstrate, it is not impossible to document and communicate impact in an illustrative and accessible way. First launched in 2005, the Zimbabwe Media Programme’s support to Zimbabwe’s media workers and media institutions, has grown gradually and organically over the years. As this report details, one of the more notable changes that the programme has successfully contributed towards, is the inclusion of improved freedom of expression and access to information provisions in Zimbabwe’s 2013 constitution. Through a national strategy for the development of the country’s media driven by the needs and demands of media sector stakeholders, this successful contribution built on a solid foundation of close collaboration between media and civil society inside the country as well as among international media development actors and donors outside it. It reflects a real-world manifestation of key aid effectiveness principles that include national ownership, alignment, harmonisation and mutual accountability. Principles that IMS, our partners and our donors strive for so that we may improve the quality, and indeed further the impact, of our combined efforts. Despite the successful work of the Zimbabwe Media Programme, plenty of challenges lie ahead. In February 2015, nearly two years after Zimbabwe’s new constitution was approved full of democratic promises, the vast majority of its new provisions had still not been implemented through law or practice. To deepen the existing results of the work of the Zimbabwe Media Programme and to further the democratic reform of the media sector overall, everyone involved needs to be ready to leverage the opportunities that arrive as the social, political and economic landscape in the country continues to evolve. That means we must continue to support the critical work of our media and civil society partners in Zimbabwe so that they are ready to seize new opportunities to expand on the democratic gains they have worked so hard to achieve." (Foreword) more

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Media Reforms Through Intervention: International Media Assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tarik Jusic, Nidžara Ahmetaševic

Sarajevo: Analitika – Center for Social Research (2013), 71 pp.

"The case of BiH demonstrates that media reform is a slow, time-consuming process, which is closely related to the consolidation of democratic institutions that foster free media. The four case studies presented here amply demonstrate a deep tension between externally-driven reform initiatives and t ... more

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Strategic Communications in Afghanistan’s Transition Context

Jamil Seddiqui

Swansea: Swansea University, Thesis (2012), v, 64 pp.

"Following a decade of extensive international involvement and arduous fighting, Afghanistan is currently going through a significant Transition intended to enable Afghans to assume responsibility for their own security, development and governance. In addition to opportunities, this process provides ... significant challenges to the Afghan society and its development partners. This study raises awareness of the role and potential of strategic communications to address some of these challenges and aid Afghanistan’s Transition objectives beyond the timeframe set for 2014. In treatment of this topic, this study provides a theoretical and historical overview of communication for development, Afghanistan’s pre- and post-2001 situation with reference to the use of important channels of modern and traditional communications, and examines pertinent perspectives on the importance of strategic communications, particularly in strengthening Afghanistan’s Transition context. In addition, this study focuses on the contribution of strategic communication in non-security matters, particularly governance and peace promotion, and identifies some major challenges where the potential of strategic communications to contribute has remained underexploited. Drawing on these discussions, the results indicates that, in spite of some measures put to the fore, the Afghan government lacks an overarching strategic communications framework integrating multi-media, multi-outlet and public outreach to help in achieving the Transition goal; a stable Afghan state. Pointing clearly to the need for such an integrated campaign, the dissemination of negative perspectives, such as that suggesting that Afghanistan would collapse after 2004, has given space to insurgents propaganda, a challenge which can be addressed through effective strategic communications. In the conclusions, this study argues on the importance of strategic communications as an strategic tool to aid Afghanistan development agenda particularly in the Transition context and presents some practical recommendations to the Afghan government and its deployment partners for effective use of strategic communications in view of a holistic approach aimed the strengthening development of Afghanistan and particularly the Transition process." (Abstract) more

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One Size Does Not Fit All: Objectives and Priority Areas for Media Assistance in Different Societies
Top Insights

Krishna Kumar

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2009), 39 pp.

"The essential thesis of this paper is that the requirements and problems of the media sector differ substantially from country to country according to its political, social and economic conditions: in authoritarian states the scope and intensity of media assistance is quite limited, whereas democra ... more

Media Reform Amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine Top Insights

One Size Does Not Fit All: Objectives and Priority Areas for Media Assistance in Different Societies Top Insights

Media Reform Amid Political Upheaval: Lessons from Burma, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Ukraine
Top Insights

One Size Does Not Fit All: Objectives and Priority Areas for Media Assistance in Different Societies
Top Insights