"For many years, the media development conversation regarding Cuba has largely focused on the country’s harsh censorship practices and other restrictions on freedom of expression. Those concerns remain. But with the opening of relations with the United States over the past two years, the conversat
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ion has widened. U.S. government and business interests have reengaged with Cuba, and the clock is highly unlikely to be rolled back. There is going to be more digital media in Cuba, and more Cubans are going to go online. The Internet will continue to advance, and the regime’s old monolithic message will become less possible to sustain. The future of journalism is impossible to predict in Cuba, other than to say it is bound to get better. The Cuban journalism of the future is likely to skew to online platforms." (Conclusion)
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"The three countries that this year experienced a decrease in overall score—Belarus, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan—were ones last year that had showed small but unexpected increases. Last year’s Executive Summary indicated that such increases were unlikely to be part of a larger upward trend; pan
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elists’ scores this year for all three ended up placing the three more or less where they stood in 2014. A similar phenomenon occurred this year with Tajikistan. Panelists there gave scores that increase the overall score in the country by 0.18 despite the fact that many serious threats to the media sector exist, including government pressure and harassment of critical voices, concentration of media control, poor quality reporting, and difficulty for independent media in raising revenue. Except for Objective 3, Plurality of News, all objectives received higher scores. Reading the chapter text, however, one does not get the impression that much positive is happening to improve the ability of Tajik media to serve as the Fourth Estate." (Executive summary)
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"Das Fazit der Beiträge in diesem Heft bringt Snežana Milivojevic nüchtern auf den Punkt: „Der Glaube, dass ein freier Markt gleichbedeutend mit freien Medien ist, hat sich in den Transformationsländern als Illusion erwiesen.“ Die größte Gefahr für unabhängigen Journalismus liegt dort ni
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cht vor allem darin – wie es derzeit laut Olga Tokariuk in der Ukraine der Fall ist –, Gewalt, Entführung und Morddrohungen ausgesetzt zu sein, sondern vor allem in der Abhängigkeit von Finanzquellen: Zwar entsprechen die gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen für Medien mittlerweile internationalen Standards, doch als viel schädlicher, so schreibt Sanela Hodžic im Fall Bosnien-Herzegowinas, gilt der Zugriff geschäftlicher Netzwerke und politischer Interessengruppen auf die Medien. Besonders deutlich wird das auch in den Beiträgen zu Bulgarien, Serbien, Albanien und Ungarn. Zudem stellen Péter Techet in Ungarn wie auch Remzi Lani in Albanien fest, dass Journalisten meist schreiben können, was sie wollen, aber niemand darauf regiert: „Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber Kritik führt zur Abwertung des freien Wortes.“ Deshalb warnt auch Christian Mihr von „Reporter ohne Grenzen“: „Freiheit, um die nicht gerungen wird, stirbt.“ Es gibt aber auch Lichtblicke: In der Ukraine legen mehrere unabhängige Sender Wert auf professionellen Journalismus und finanzieren sich durch Crowdfunding. Die Slowakei findet sich auf der Rangliste von „Reporter ohne Grenzen“ auf Platz 14 (Deutschland steht auf Platz 12, die Schweiz auf Platz 20). Nicht zuletzt zeugen auch die Autoren und Autorinnen dieser Ausgabe von den bestehenden Oasen für qualitätsbewussten Journalismus in Osteuropa." (Editorial)
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"Two basic principles should prevail for media regulation in Cambodia: 1. Consistent application of the principles of the rule of law on the basis of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and press (Art. 35 and 41: Cambodian Constitution). 2. Transparent and predictable regulative decision-
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making that is oriented towards professional journalistic standards." (Executive summary)
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"This desk study was commissioned by International Media Support (IMS) for the purposes of providing information to colleagues in the media support sector and to donors so that they may be better informed when devising and deciding on appropriate intervention strategies [...] Research for this repor
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t was conducted from 15 – 23 June 2015 and was based on interviews with journalists and other actors in both Burundi and Rwanda. In addition, news and other reports were consulted." (Page 5)
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"Although ostensibly free, the Lebanese media find themselves stifled by several legal, political, economic and cultural restrictions, which limit freedom of expression. This calls for an overhaul of the judiciary and electoral system, which must occur multilaterally." (Conclusions and recommendatio
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ns, page 32)
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"Results of the 2015 MSI study for Europe & Eurasia (E&E) at first glance show encouraging results: the average of 21 overall country scores increased by 0.04 compared with last year, representing the highest average of overall scores so far this decade. Out of 21 countries studied, seven increased
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by more than one-tenth of a point. Eleven country scores remained about the same and only three decreased by more than a tenth. Indeed there are some encouraging developments, described in more detail below. However, in other cases what appear to be improvements in scores are likely to be only short-term blips on an otherwise downward or flat trend. Belarus (+0.16), Azerbaijan (+0.15), and Kazakhstan (+0.16) all showed small increases in overall score, but in all of these cases several factors indicate that this is not part of a new trend.." (Executive summary)
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"The main objective of the study was to determine and examine the perception of journalists in Kosovo on freedom of media, based on 27 indicators of the European Council. The analysis is categorized in six sectors, covering all areas of the study that pertain significant information on the perceptio
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n of journalists and media freedom: legal perspective and applicability for freedom of expression and information; self-regulatory media mechanisms; media bias and professionalism; institution transparency with regard to media; interference in media; safety in journalism." (Introduction)
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"In 2014, competition in the Afghan media sector has increased in order to attract diminishing advertising revenue. This has led to increased professionalization and a certain degree of segmentation with the introduction of specialist, niche channels. The pace of development of new outlets has slowe
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d, reflecting the challenging environment, and increasing competition: There is now an average of three TV channels created each year as opposed to the average of nine in 2010. The programming scene looks much like that of 2010, filled with news programming, drama series, entertainment programs and political debate, with the exception of the introduction of a significant level of sports programming. Production remains split between national production of a number of key genres, with a high level of internationally procured series, and movies, done so by a variety of means, largely illegal. Whilst there is an increasing desire for internal production, financial, social and political constraints continue to make this difficult. Among media users in the sample, 62% turn their TV on, and 32% turn their radio on at some point during the day, compared to 63% and 39% respectively last year." (Executive summary)
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"Im Fokus des ersten Teils stehen transnationale Phänomene wie die Bedeutung des Satellitenfernsehens und der Sozialen Medien sowie die Rolle von Minderheiten, Gender und Islamisten in den Medien. Diese Beiträge geben den aktuellen Stand der Forschung wieder und reflektieren diesen. Im zweiten Tei
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l des Buches werden in 18 Länderstudien – von Marokko bis zum Irak – die nationalen Besonderheiten der Medien betrachtet, die aus unterschiedlichen politischen Systemen, rechtlichen Beschränkungen, ökonomischen Voraussetzungen und der jeweiligen Soziodemographie resultieren." (Klappentext)
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"From the beginning of the process of opening up in the early 1990s, to the start of the 2000s, Francophone countries in Africa have been seen as ‘in transition‘, ‘emerging democracies‘ or ‘undergoing democratic consolidation‘. Their media were analysed through the lens of the ‘transit
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ion‘ paradigm. But these regimes are not ‘on their way to democracy‘: they are meant to remain as they are, mixing democratic features and authoritarian traits. Their media landscape reflects this situation, showing both characteristics of a democratic media system and some authoritarian features, generally in hidden form. These media systems can therefore be labeled ‘pluralist authoritarian‘, which seems to be a contradiction at first glance, until a distinction is made between the façade and what lies beneath. In the façade we see a pluralist media landscape, a market open to private initiatives, an absence of a priori control over media content, a diversity of political parties able to interact with media outlets, and journalists who have gained autonomy through the establishment of their own principles of conduct, professional organisations and self-regulatory bodies. But behind the façade, media outlets have to face maneuvering from those in power who wish to control the flow of information through direct political pressure, indirect economic obstacies, dominance on the public media, and manipulation of the legal framework and judicial system. Analysing the media systems of Francophone countries in Africa in the light of the ‘semi-authoritarian‘ paradigm, and not as ‘consolidating democratic media sectors‘ or 'emerging liberal media markets‘, gives a clearer perspective on the issues at stake right now in that part of the continent, and should be a challenge for future researchers publishing in this journal." (Conclusion)
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