"This report is intended to be a practical, useful guide for stakeholders in national and local governments, the media, civil society, and business to making freedom of information laws work. The authors’ particular emphasis is on the role public officials and journalists must play in effectively
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breathing life into these laws, giving meaning to their democratic intent and legal guarantees [...] This paper begins with a review of the theory and practice of FOI laws, which are universally recognized as critical components of a modern system of free expression. It follows with discussion of the obstacles to effective implementation, including in an appendix several interviews with stakeholders in six countries in which FOI laws have been introduced recently: Albania, Armenia, Indonesia, Jamaica, South Africa, and Ukraine. The paper then makes several recommendations." (Executive summary)
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"This paper argues that like other sectors, the media development sector needs to bring greater empirical rigor to its operations in order to bring about gender integration. It attempts to orient media development practitioners with both a historical and contemporary view of key policies, research a
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nd approaches to gender integration, as produced by media development scholars, practitioners and the donor community [...] Despite the number of published materials, the authors found that few focus on gender integration in media development. Moreover, many still misunderstand what gender integration means—both broadly as well as specifically with regard to media assistance. While the authors found a rich trove of academic literature and an established network of scholars and gender specialists, we found the need for greater opportunities to improve research on gender and media development as well as additional networking to connect gender experts with media development programs. Throughout the course of research for this paper, the most common suggestion recommended a better understanding of how media development can help advance gender goals." (Executive summary)
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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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"Exporting Press Freedom examines the history and practice of media assistance, and argues that the dilemma of media independence and sustainability is best understood as an economic problem rather than one of poor editorial standards or lack of will. It includes profiles of news and public affairs
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media in developing and democratizing countries, and also of two non-governmental organizations that have pioneered the use of low-interest loans in media assistance. These profiles exemplify strategic and entrepreneurial approaches to developing and supporting public service media. Such approaches may be of use not only in the developing world, but in the consolidated Western democracies as well, where concern has grown about poor journalistic performance and its consequences for democratic governance." (Publisher description)
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