"This report highlights the latest ICT developments in the region and includes key statistical information for every country. It features a regional analysis of the ITU ICT Development Index (IDI) and the ICT Price Basket, two ICT benchmarking tools that were launched in March 2009. The report point
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s to key policy issues in the region and provides concrete recommendations for policy makers." (Foreword)
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"This study analyses statistical correlations between press freedom and human development, human security, stability, poverty reduction, and good governance, using indicator systems from Freedom House and Reporters without Borders, UNDP's Human Development Index, the Human Poverty Index, the World B
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ank's Governance Indicators and others. According to the abstract "all the findings confirm the importance of press freedom for development. A free press always has a positive influence, whether it be on poverty and its different aspects, on governance or on violence and conflict issues. It serves as an intermediary between individuals and government, informing the latter of people's needs and acting as a buffer against crises and situations of extreme deprivation; it holds governments accountable and makes their actions more transparent; and, along with other indicators of good governance, it creates a business-enabling environment, a climate conducive to more effective public affairs management, and so forth. The results thus suggest that a freer press can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and, most importantly, to the attainment of an acceptable and viable level of development. By promoting freedom of the press, states and international organisations provide themselves with a powerful development tool. A free press constitutes an instrument of development as such, in the same way as education or investment." (CAMECO Update 1-2009)
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"The study showed that, in 2005, the contribution of the copyright-based industries (CIs) to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Ukraine amounted to 2.85 per cent or 12,583.54 million UAH. At the same time the total contribution of the core CIs constituted 1.54 per cent or 6,815.61 million UAH. The
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contribution of CIs to gross national production in 2005 amounted to 3.47 per cent, or 36,336.71 million UAH. The contribution of the core CIs to gross production constituted 2.07 per cent, or 21,714.34 million UAH. The total number of employees in the CIs in 2005 amounted to 360,412 persons or 1.91 per cent of the total working population of Ukraine." (Summary, page 4)
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"The total value added of the copyright-based industries in Colombia reached Col$9.5 millions of millions in 2005 (approximately 4,800 million US dollars) from Col$5.7 millions of millions in 2000. As a percentage of GDP, the CBI represented an average of 3.3 per cent throughout the period. In real
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terms, i.e. discounting price increases, the value added of the CBI grew 29 per cent in five years from Col$2.4 millions of millions in 2000 to Col$3.1 millions of millions in 2005 (at 1994 constant prices). During the period analyzed, the CBI had an average participation in GDP of 3.3 per cent. This rate is similar to the share of electricity and gas, slightly higher than the contribution of crude oil and natural gas extraction and more than double that of coffee and coal. The latter comparison emphasizes the importance of the CBI in national output since coffee and coal are two important Colombian exports, which have a significant share in the global market. The composition of the CBI is as follows: the core industries represent 56 per cent of the total value added generated by these economic activities, followed by interdependent (24 per cent), non-dedicated support (13 per cent) and partial copyright industries (8 per cent)." (Executive summary, page 10)
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"What are the effects of television, and of role models portrayed in TV programs, on individual behavior? We focus on fertility choices in Brazil, a country where soap operas (novelas) portray families that are much smaller than in reality. We exploit differences in the timing of entry into differen
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t markets of Rede Globo, the network that has an effective monopoly on novelas production in this country. Using Census data for the period 1970-1991, we find that women living in areas covered by the Globo signal have significantly lower fertility. The effect is strongest for women of lower socioeconomic status and for women in the central and late phases of their fertility cycle, consistent with stopping behavior. The result is robust to placebo treatments and does not appear to be driven by selection in Globo entry. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that novelas, and not just television, affected individual choices. First, people living in areas covered by the signal were more likely to name their children after novela characters. Second, entry of a network that relied on imported shows did not have a significant impact on fertility. Third, the impact of Globo presence was strongest for women close in age to the main novela characters." (Abstract)
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"This paper discusses the notions of demand, poverty, information needs, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to offer a concept of digital poverty, which may be useful to estimate the digital poverty level in Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper is composed of two sections. T
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he first section contains a conceptual discussion of digital poverty, its types and possible levels, and the underlying economic foundations. ICTs are defined based on their use and the conditions for such use. Digital poverty is therefore defined as a lack of ICTs and might be a feature of any population segment, whether or not economically poor. The second section of this paper is an empirical attempt to validate the classification, using data from a household survey (ENAHO) carried out in Peru. The limitations in measuring digital poverty at the household level instead of at the individual level are acknowledged. Lastly, the conclusions reached, possible implications for public policy, and the avenues open for further research are presented." (Abstract)
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"This latest set of aggregate indicators, are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 33 data sources provided by 30 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector
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and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. We also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. We find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. In less than a decade, a substantial number of countries exhibit statistically significant improvements in at least one dimension of governance, while other countries exhibit deterioration in some dimensions." (Abstract)
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"The second edition of the World Information Society Report, published by ITU and UNCTAD, looks beyond the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, Geneva 2003 - Tunis 2005) to the creation of an inclusive, people-centred and development-oriented Information Society, open to all. The report tr
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acks progress in digital opportunity for 181 economies over the past few years since the start of the WSIS process and is accompanied by a series of tables providing the latest statistics on the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) worldwide. The report has been created by the “Digital Opportunity Platform”, an open multi-stakeholder platform with contributions from governments, private sector, academics and civil society, as well as inter-governmental organisations." (Back cover)
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"One thousand journalists and support staff have died trying to report the news around the world in the past 10 years: an average of two a week. Only one in four news media staff died covering war and other armed conflicts. The great majority died in peacetime, working in their own countries. At lea
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st 657 men and women were murdered - eliminated as they tried to shine light into the dark recesses of their societies - and only one in eight of their killers were prosecuted. In two-thirds of cases the killers were not even identified, and probably never will be, underlining the absence of full and proper investigations when a journalist or other news professional is killed. The figures, compiled by INSI between January 1996 and June 2006, show it is virtually risk free to kill a journalist." (Executive summary, page 7)
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