"This paper analyses the potential impact of social media on the conduct and outcome of elections both to strengthen political participation and knowledge sharing as well as the more harmful effects. It looks at the various harms particularly those relevant in the context of Latin America. It docume
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nts the more systematic approaches to election regulation of political parties and social media. It recommends adopting a hybrid system of co-regulation, where the regulator sets the outcomes but does not seek to impose detailed prescriptive requirements on companies (which would probably be beyond its technical expertise). While recognising the value of social media during an election as a way of empowering voters, it suggests the regulator develops a high-level code of practice for social media companies, to be drawn up in consultation with the companies themselves, the political parties and the wider public. The code of practice also should protect freedom of speech and the paper recommends that there be no attempt to impose controls on the consent of election communication which is protected under international human rights and free expression principles." (Executive summary)
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"This report outlines the international human rights standards and processes related the protection of freedom of expression and religious belief, and discusses regional trends and challenges. The nine country case studies include the stories of many people across the region struggling to defend fre
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edom of expression and promote an understanding of free expression that this is consistent with the expression of religious views. Some of the stories are horrifying – people are being killed for what they believe and say while exercising their rights to express that belief. It also provides an overview of the relevant laws and standards which impinge on people’s rights in each of these countries. It is a challenge to governments in the region to recognise their responsibility to protect the rights of their own citizens. The Jakarta Declaration set out in this report is a stirring declaration of the responsibilities, not just of governments but of all the relevant actors. It set out a clear path to the essential task of protecting rights to free expression in the region and ultimately, to the protection of religious belief itself." (Andrew Puddephatt, page 8)
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"[...] This series thus proposes to unpack the concepts of transparency and volatility across three major arenas of international affairs: security, diplomacy, and development. Each issue-area features two essays, each focusing on different aspects of transparency and/or volatility. Two additional e
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ssays (by Gerald Hyman and Joseph Siegle) examine the ramifications of the growing interplay between issue-areas in the information age. Some authors situate their research within the context of academic literature, while others are more focused on policy and/or operational contexts. Taken together, the papers in this series seek to usefully organize the issue under inquiry in order to render it manageable and understandable to a wider scholarly, policy, and practitioner audience.
While this paper series uses transparency and volatility as a framework for examining international relations in the information age, it does not necessarily place information and communication technologies at the forefront of the analysis. While some papers do focus on ICT, the purpose is not to minutely examine new forms of technology and their impact. Rather, the premise for this series is that ubiquitous global communication flows have, over time, created an encompassing information environment that nurtures transparency and volatility as pervasive conditions and/or guiding norms." (Introduction, page 4)
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"This publication seeks to identify the relationship between freedom of expression and Internet privacy, assessing where they support or compete with each other in different circumstances. The publication maps out the issues in the current regulatory landscape of Internet privacy from the viewpoint
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of freedom of expression. It provides an overview of legal protection, self-regulatory guidelines, normative challenges, and case studies relating to the topic." (Foreword, page 5)
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"Generally, data about media development support are not complete and reliable due to insufficient classification categories in the DAC system, so the EC and most other international institutions and organisations share the problem of not having solid knowledge about the scope and size of support in
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this field. This is also the case in the CRIS data base, which does not distinguish for example between public diplomacy and media support [...] As a consequence, the amounts and other figures in this report should not be taken as exact values. But the mapping does show some clear trends and tendencies despite the weakness ofthe basic data, and the main findings are: According to the information available in the CRIS data base and the definition of projects applied for this support, the total amount spent on media development and freedom of expression in the period 2000-2010 has been 148,4 Million Euro. More than half of the total amount has been spent in the neighbour countries East and South of the EU. More than 40 % has been spent in the Western Balkans, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Turkey, while 12,5 % has been spent in the Middle East and North Africa. 24,3 % of the total funds have been spent in Sub-Saharan Africa. The EC support for media development and freedomof expression has been limited compared with the bilateral support from EU. Member States and other bilateral donors. For comparison the Swedish budget for media support from SIDA in 2012 is 26 Million Euro and DfiD supports the BBC Media Action with more than 20 Million Euro per year. The funding comes from a variety of thematic and geographic Instruments with the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, EIDHR, as the single biggest source, which accounts for 41 % of the total support. Other significant Instruments are IPA, CARDS, ENPI and MED. The main focus has been on training of journalists and editors in journalistic skills and professional standards. Other initiatives have been support to reform of media related legislation and direct support to endangered journalists and writers. The projects supportedby the EC have not been different from projects funded by bilateral donors. Very few projects have benefitted from the potential comparative advantages of the EC/EU as a multinational entity. Very few projects have been designed and implemented in cooperation with member states or other donor agencies, and the projects do not reflect on-going internal medla developments in the EU. There seems to be more focus on EU visibility than on EU additionallity. The top ten contract holders have implemented 36 % of the total project value with BBC Media Action as the single biggest partner, which has implemented almost ten percent of the total project value in the period 2000-2010. lnternews (with lnternews Europe as the biggest entity) comes second with 4,6 % of the total project value followed by the International Federation of Journalists with 3,4 % of the project value. The EC is seen as a “difficult“ or “bureaucratic“ donor agency, which is difficult to approach for smaller organisations because the possible funding does not correspond with the paper work needed to apply for support." (Executive summary
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"The European Commission has begun to integrate a political economy approach throughout the project cycle. This guide tailors the political economy approach to the media development sector specifically. Using a political economy media matrix (PEMM) as its basis, it explains how to integrate the PE a
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pproach throughout the programme cycle." (Background, page 4)
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"Key recommendations: Explore ways of integrating EU diplomatic power alongside its development programmes in order to support freedom of expression and independent media and communicaitons; Enhance coordination between the different operational arms of the EU; Utilise EU’s convening power to brin
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g together member states to co-ordinate the application of media development programmes; Base the EU’s approach to media development on principles of freedom of expression as a foundation human right; Use political economy analysis - of both online and offl ine media - when considering what to fund. This will involve identifying those who are allies for and obstacles to change, as well as the incentives for change; Any media programme should take into consideration digital freedoms and the interrelationship between mobile phones and the internet and offl ine media; There should be more focus on increasing digital skills, capacities and awareness; Fostering an enabling environment is important if media and to thrive as businesses and be financially viable; There is potential to collaborate with European companies to create new CSR strategies, funding mechanisms, soft loans and guarantee instruments; Rethink criteria for measuring impact and outcomes so that they are specific to the media development and communications field." (Page 25)
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Examines the impact that the rise of digital communications is having on the media, and on human rights activism. The report goes on to explore the main policy issues which must be addressed at the national and international levels to shape an enabling environment. The report combines global level a
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nalysis with a specific focus on eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, India, Indonesia, South Africa and the United States of America.
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"Press freedom indices such as those administered by Freedom House, IREX, and Reporters Without Borders have emerged as crucial tools, not only for the general public, but also for donors, implementers, and academics in their attempts to understand the relationships among media assistance, democrati
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zation, and other forms of development. Bringing together a variety of viewpoints and perspectives on evaluating media assistance, Measures of Press Freedom and Media Contributions to Development offers a critical reflection on the theories and tools of measurements that are used by the academic, donor, and civil society communities. A variety of theoretical and geographic perspectives are drawn upon, offering a timely debate from both academics and practitioners." (Publisher description)
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"This position paper distinguishes three 'corner sections' which can be considered of fundamental importance for the development of a sustainable media sector: the legal and regulatory environment, professional capacity (both managerial, technical and journalistic), and a sound and sustainable econo
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mic base. In addition, it differentiates between five contextual frames: authoritarian states, conflict and post-conflict countries, fragile democracies in the early stages of democratisation, stagnating democratisation processes and new democracies in the process of consolidation. Depending on this context, the paper provides recommendations for media support. According to the general conclusions (page 28) "there is a strong preference to develop a programme of projects that support all three corner sections as it is the combination of all three that best supports a media environment capable of promoting democracy, human rights and development." (commbox)
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"This book highlights the importance of the news media as watchdogs, agenda setters and gatekeepers for the quality of democratic deliberation in the public sphere. At the same time, it theorizes that the capacity of journalists and media systems to fulfill these roles depends on the broader context
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determined by the profession, the market and the state. Media systems' performance often falls far short of the ideals, as succesive case studies from different world regions demonstrate. Finally, the book asks what policy interventions work effectively to close the gap between the democratic promise and perfomance of the news media as an institution. The final chapter, "Policy recommendations", concludes (page 406): "Interventions include reforms directed at strengthening the journalistic profession, notably institutional capacity building, through bodies such as press councils, press freedom advocacy NGOs, and organizations concerned with journalistic training and accreditation. Other important reforms seek to overcome market failures, including developing a regulatory framework for media systems to ensure pluralism of ownership and diversity of contents. Finally, policies also address the role of the state, including deregulation to shift state-run broadcasting to public service broadcasting, overseen by independent broadcasting regulatory bodies, and the protection of constitutional principles of freedom of the press, speech, and expression." (commbox)
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"United Nations agencies currently do not have commonly agreed tools for assessing the impact of Communication for Development (C4D) programmes. This paper is designed to help them explore the key issues surrounding C4D, consider case studies and best practice methodology and propose a set of draft
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indicators for monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Nevertheless, this publication is also of value for anybody interested in M&E. It presents in a clear and succinct way the principal tools and approaches, from conventional, quantitative research techniques to more intricate, participatory processes, and it summarises the challenges to communication for development M&E. Case studies are used to illustrate how initiatives have used a variety of approaches to gather informative results and feed these back into programme design. The authors emphasise that a tailored toolkit approach is necessary in order to deal with the many complexities of C4D evaluation. They highlight the need for flexibility within any evaluation and discuss the strengths of Most Significant Change, Outcome Mapping and the Logframe as state of the art evaluation techniques. Qualitative and quantitative tools should be used as complementary strategies for providing the most comprehensive, clear and pragmatic assessment and reporting of C4D." (CAMECO Update 4-2009)
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Provides a mappping of 26 initiatives to develop indicators of media development and their respective methodologies, and analyses these initiatives in terms of their value and relevance to the priorities of the IPDC. The paper also proposes sample indicators and data sources for five principal media
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development outcomes which are broken down into separate categories.
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"The symposium Measuring Change. Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation in Media Development focused on the utilisation aspect of evaluation1: The adding of “Planning” to “Monitoring and Evaluation” in the subtitle indicates that emphasis was laid on learning from monitoring and evaluation experie
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nces, to facilitate the improvement of existing projects and programmes at all levels, from planning to implementation and follow-up." (Executive Summary)
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"This Guide complements the Practical Guidance Note on Right to Information, which provided guidance on approaches for designing and implementing programmes in this area. It builds on this knowledge, and focuses on the monitoring and evaluation of those programmes, paying particular attention to the
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use of appropriate indicators, including gender and pro-poor indicators. It outlines the basic principles of programme evaluation, but concentrates on assessing outcomes. It outlines four broad areas of right to information that must be considered in any context for a thorough evaluation. These are: (1) the legal regime for the right to information; (2) the implementation of right to information legislation by government; (3) the use of right to information by the general public and civil society; and (4) the use of right to information by marginalised group. It then suggests questions for each area, and derives from these typical baseline assessment features, outputs and outcomes." (Abstract)
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