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Radicalism Online: An Analysis of the Meanings, Ideas, and Values of Violent Extremism in Central Asia

Bishkek: Internews;Centre for Religious Studies of Kyrgyzstan (2021), 136 pp.

"In an effort to help prevent violent extremism in Central Asia, the Research Centre for Religious Studies of Kyrgyzstan conducted an analysis of values, narratives, and online messages created and distributed by banned extremist groups in five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmeni ... stan, and Uzbekistan. The study included over 1.6 million messages containing religious rhetoric and provides insight into the meanings of the messages and the channels for dissemination, as well as the impact of the messages on the target audience. This was followed by a field study of 4,005 respondents in the 18-35 age range. In addition, the survey also sought to identify the media preferences of young people in the region. Using the findings, the Centre developed communication strategies for each country that recommended how media, NGOs, state authorities, and religious leaders could, with a focus on young people, contribute to promoting peace. Although less than 1% of the analyzed messages containing religious rhetoric had what would be considered dangerous content, those particular messages often resonated with users’ values and interests, especially young people. The messages promoting violence used specific, complex terms that were geared to people who were already followers of radical ideas rather than the average user. The intent of the messages was to deepen the commitment of followers rather than recruit new followers. Administrators of violent extremist channels have developed multi-channel access strategies for potential recipients (through various platforms, chat rooms, personal messages, and reposts), thwarting the blocking measures used by Central Asian governments. The messaging by extremist groups promotes: purity of faith, mutual support to fellow believers, fighting against infidels and apostates, rejection of secular power and its decisions, ambition to create a caliphate, and anti-Semitism. The main target audience of distributors of extremist content is young people aged 18-30 who are dissatisfied with the current political environment and who share a strong sense of injustice. Those aged 18-21 showing the strongest support for the influence of religion on politics. Level of education is also a risk factor: young people with less education tend to engage more with the content." (Publisher description) more

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Monitoring Media Pluralism in the Digital Era: Application of the Media Pluralism Monitor in the European Union, Albania, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia & Turkey in the Year 2020

Konrad Bleyer-Simon, Elda Brogi, Roberta Carlini, Iva Nenadic, Marie Palmer, Pier Luigi Parcu, Sofia Verza, Mario Viola de Azevedo Cunha, Mária Žuffová

European University Institute;Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) (2021), 167 pp.

"[...] The MPM2021 covers, on this occasion, 32 countries, 27 EU and 5 non-EU (Candidate countries) [...] The results of the MPM2021 show an increase in the risk level for all the areas that the Media Pluralism Monitor analyses: Fundamental protection, Market Plurality, Political Independence and So ... more

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China and International Development: Knowledge, Governance, and Practice

Xiaoyun Li, Jing Gu, Chuanhong Zhang (eds.)

IDS Bulletin (Institute of Development Studies), volume 52, issue 2 (2021), viii, 160 pp.

"This issue of the IDS Bulletin brings together studies of the primary institutions and policies that are guiding China’s activities in development cooperation, focusing on the question of what China contributes to international development and the implications for global development cooperation. ... more

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Media and Mapping Practices in the Middle East and North Africa: Producing Space

Alena Strohmaier, Angela Krewani (eds.)

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (2021), 323 pp.

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Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach: The Global Scale and Scope of Transnational Repression

Nate Schenkhan, Isabel Linzer

Washington, DC: Freedom House (2021), 74 pp.

"This report is the product of an effort to understand the scale and scope of “transnational repression,” in which governments reach across national borders to silence dissent among their diaspora and exile communities. Freedom House assembled cases of transnational repression from public source ... more

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Leadership or Stagnation: The Future of Media Viability in Bangladesh

Ross Settles, Tanim Ahmed

Dhaka: Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI);Fojo Media Institute (2021), 38 pp.

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Reporting under fear and threats: The deadly cost of being a journalist in Pakistan and India

Sadia Jamil, Prabhjot Sohal

World of Media: Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, issue 2 (2021), pp. 5-33

"The journalists’ right to perform their watchdog role and to do their routine jobs without fear of being killed, kidnapped, harassed, and attacked is a topic of utmost importance for freedom of the media and freedom of expression. However, in the past decade, journalists’ killings across the gl ... more

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Human Development and Advocacy Journalism: Analysis of Low Editorial Coverage in Pakistan

Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh, Muhammad Yousaf

Development Policy Review, volume 38, issue 5 (2020), pp. 646-663

"This article examines advocacy journalism coverage of human development issues versus other issues in the contents of mainstream Pakistani newspapers and investigates the factors behind the inadequate space given to them. The study further explores the association between editorial and readers’ p ... more

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Culturally Inclusive Online Learning for Capacity Development: Projects in International Contexts

Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena

Journal of Learning for Development, volume 7, issue 1 (2020), pp. 5-30

"This paper explores cultural inclusivity in online learning design by discussing two international capacity development projects: an online tutor mentor development programme in Sri Lanka and a hybrid physician assistant training programme in Ghana. Inclusivity involves establishing partnerships an ... more

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COVID-19 Foreign Influence Campaigns: Europe and the Global Battle of Narratives

Naja Bentzen

Brussels: European Parliament (2020), 8 pp.

"The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initially concealed information about the spread of the virus. Research suggests that they thereby delayed measures to alleviate the spread of the disease. At the same time, the CCP launched far-reaching efforts to silence domestic criticism. The CCP's efforts to r ... more

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"Big changes start small": Geschichten von Menschen, die etwas bewegen. Ein Wirkungsbericht

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2020), 97 pp.

"Die DW Akademie sammelt und dokumentiert die Wirkungen ihrer Projekte auf verschiedenen Ebenen, mit verschiedenen Methoden. Dazu zählen zunächst drei Wege, die heute Standard in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit sind: erstens angewandte Studien, die neues Wissen über Wirkungen ermöglichen, zweiten ... more

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Strategies and (survival) Tactics: The Case of Syrian Oppositional Media in Turkey

Yazan Badran

Journal of Alternative and Community Media, volume 5, issue 1 (2020), pp. 69-85

"This article aims to investigate the regulatory, financial and political environment negotiated by oppositional Syrian media operating in exile in Turkey, as well as to identify the main tactics used by them in negotiating between these constraints to ensure their survival in an increasingly diffic ... more

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Combating Bullets With a Pen: The Importance of Free Media and the Safety of Journalists for Building a Public Sphere for Democracy in Pakistan

Fahad Mahmood

In: Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety

Sadia Jamil (ed.)

Hershey, PA: IGI Global (2020), pp. 54-71

"Journalists have always faced restrictions on their freedom of speech and threats to their security in Pakistan. During Pakistan's 2018 general elections, the country's media was also managed and controlled to create a maligned public-sphere to misguide the Pakistani voters. Public sphere was malig ... more

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Afghanistan

Karl-Heinz Lutz (ed.)

Paderborn; Potsdam: Schöningh;Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr (ZMSBw), 4., aktual. und veränd. Aufl. (2020), 272 pp.

"Der »Wegweiser zur Geschichte: Afghanistan« erschien erstmals 2006. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt kämpften die US-Streitkräfte und ihre Verbündeten im Rahmen der Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) bereits mehrere Jahre auch auf afghanischem Boden gegen den internationalen Terroris mus. Die Kräfte der Int ... more

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Afghanistan Media Landscape

Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar

Maastricht: European Journalism Centre (2020)

"Afghanistan media has a history of 147 years. In 1873 the first ever paper, Shamsunahar, was established. The first radio transmitter was installed in 1920. The first TV broadcast happened in Kabul in 1978. The Internet was linked and used in Afghanistan during the Taliban period after 1996, althou ... gh it was not public and was used only by Taliban leaders. According to Nai Supporting Open Media, the leading Media Advocacy NGO in Afghanistan, there are 464 operational media in the country, which has the best media law in the region and one of the tops “Access to Information” bills in the world. But, since 2001, almost 120 journalists and media workers have been killed; more than 1550 violence cases against media have been registered and, except for a few of them, no prosecution processes have been launched for the cases. In practice access to information, despite having a good law, is one of the biggest challenges regarding freedom of expression, along with security and financial sustainability. The Taliban pose a great threat to media. Out of 120 journalists and media staff that have been killed since 2001, over 55 have been killed by the Taliban. On the other side, the Government of Afghanistan is yet to start addressing the violence cases against journalists allegedly perpetrated by governmental staff, particularly security forces. The government is not as supportive as it is stated to be by law and poses pressures which are among the challenges to freedom of expression. It has been known to set barriers to a free flow of information and to find various ways to prevent broadcasting stories about its failures. Financial challenges caused almost 240 media outlets to stop their activities in the country since 2014. Tens of radio stations and almost 6 TV stations are among the media outlets that have stopped their activities mainly because of financial problems. Although there are no specific studies that analyse public trust in media, the article “Media and government in the era of democracy” published on The Daily Afghanistan magazine shows the existence of a strong public trust in the media. When people are disappointed or have their rights infringed by a governmental entity, they turn to various media to make the problem known. That explains the popularity of media programmes that review cases and court hearings." (Overview) more

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Shooting the Messenger, Slowly, but Surely: A Review of Imminent Threats to Freedom of Media and Journalistic Integrity in India

Prabhjot Sohal

In: Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety

Sadia Jamil (ed.)

Hershey, PA: IGI Global (2020), pp. 23-37

"India ranks 140th among 180 countries worldwide in the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI), according to the 2019 report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). In 2018, India was 138th in the same index and 136th in 2016. For the media of the world's largest democracy, this is disconcerting. The slide in ... more

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Social Media and Polarization in the 'New Malaysia'

Quinton Temby

Singapore: ISEAS (2020), 9 pp.

"Malaysia’s Pakatan Harapan government fell rapidly in late February 2020 as a result of coalition infighting and power struggles among the political elite. A major factor in the government’s sudden collapse was rising ethnoreligious tension between Muslim-Malay nationalists in the opposition an ... more

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DEF’s Covid-19 Relief Initiatives as a Digitally-Enabled Humanitarian Organisation

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) (2020), 42 pp.

"Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) launched the Digital Emergency Relief Programme through its Community Information Resource Centers (CIRC) across 600+ locations in India who have been rigorously responding to the crisis by reaching out to the most vulnerable communities. The CIRC centres with t ... more

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Suffering in Silence: The Resilience of Pakistan’s Female Journalists to Combat Sexual Harassment, Threats and Discrimination

Sadia Jamil

Journalism Practice, volume 15, issue 2 (2020), pp. 150-170

"Pakistan’s journalists confront severe safety risks across the country and impunity to crimes against them allows the perpetrators to go unpunished. Now the country is recognized as one of the deadliest places for working journalists in the world. Given this situation, the Pakistani female journa ... more

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The Huawei Model: The Rise of China's Technology Giant

Yun Wen

Urbana; Chicago; Springfield: University of Illinois Press (2020), x, 239 pp.

"In 2019, the United States' trade war with China expanded to blacklist the Chinese tech titan Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The resulting attention showed the information and communications technology (ICT) firm entwined with China's political-economic transformation. But the question remained: why ... more