"At the start of 2016, Free Press Unlimited (FPU) and Tempo Institute, the NGO arm of Tempo Media Group, shared the ambition to create a new generation of investigative reporters and promote a culture of accountability throughout Indonesia in the design of “Investigating with Tempo”. In this pro
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gramme, talented journalists from local media based outside the capital were selected for a six-month fellowship to research a topic that affects the lives of citizens and local communities. The fellowship worked towards publishing an in-depth investigative story in Tempo Magazine, mentored by senior journalists of the Tempo newsroom. During this time, the fellows received a living and travel allowance, which enabled them to fully focus on the issue that they were investigating [...] This book gives insight into how social change through independent journalism happens in practice. Tempo Institute has managed to create and foster a culture of investigative journalism, and their work resulted in stories that contributed to policy changes and positively impacted the lives of marginalized groups. Individual stories can have a societal impact, either in the form of provoking power-holders into action or by bringing issues into the public sphere that would otherwise not be talked about." (Foreword, page viii-ix)
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"The objective of this report is to make available a resource that can be used by lawyers, policy experts and civil society to gauge the trajectory of judicial discourse on digital rights and use this as a tool to advocate for greater protections. This is not a compendium of all cases relating to th
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e topics dealt with. For studying the cases, the researchers developed a workbook that collated decisions available in online databases including CYRILLA and the Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression database. Resources developed by national groups on the state of digital rights in their countries provided critical guidance. The cases selected naturally fell into three categories of Access, Privacy and Freedom of expression. A key challenge faced, while developing this research, relates to collection of data. In many of the countries (except India), case laws are not easily available on free, open and searchable case law databases. Judgements and orders are often not available or are difficult to access on official court websites. In some countries, many of the decisions or orders relating to digital rights were not reported and thus were inaccessible. In a few instances, particularly for Nepal and Pakistan, some judgements were not available in English and reliance had to be placed on the analysis of the judgement provided by researchers with knowledge of the local language. The countries selected share similar legal systems and challenges in the exercise and enjoyment of digital rights. Some of the issues covered by the report include discussions around access to the internet and its impact on other rights as well as network shutdowns. Judicial pronouncements in relation to privacy, surveillance, national identity programmes, data protection have been analysed across jurisdictions. A significant number of cases studied related to challenges surrounding freedom of expression. Judgements on access to the internet indicate that there is some recognition of the central role the internet and connectivity play in the lives of all individuals. Cases discussed in this report include judgements relating to equitable telecast rights, instances where use of mobile phones were prohibited, providing limited internet access to prisoners, recognition of medium of information being protected and multiple cases on network shutdowns." (Overview and refelections, page 7)
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"This research aims at finding the current state of (open) voice datasets in Indian languages, including information about their volume, quality, mode of collection, and availability. The present research also explores the challenges for the creation and maintenance of open voice datasets in India.
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The report makes practice-oriented recommendations for future sustainable voice data collection based on both extensive desk research and expert interviews."
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"The first edition of the IPA Global Report on Copyright & Publishing aims to provide an overview of aspects of copyright law and policy in the 69 countries where IPA’s members are established, based on the issues that are most relevant to the publishing industry. The objective of this report is t
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o characterise the main features of national copyright laws that concern the publishing industry, with the aim of assisting IPA members in assessing their priorities in terms of copyright policy activities and drawing information about how other countries tackle similar challenges." (Executive summary)
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"WhatsApp is a key medium for the spread of news and rumors, often shared as images. We study a large collection of politically-oriented WhatsApp groups in India, focusing on the period leading up to the 2019 Indian national elections. By labeling samples of random and popular images, we find that a
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round 10% of shared images are known misinformation and most fall into three types of images. Machine learning methods can be used to predict whether a viral image is misinformation, but are brittle to shifts in content over time." (Abstract)
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"Since the 1950s, Chinese foreign aid has been influenced by and linked with China’s investment, trade, and foreign policy objectives. Partly as a result, it has also been fairly opaque. However, as Chinese aid (and loans) have increased in volume and significance, and as China’s economic status
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has improved, this opacity has become more challenging for recipient countries to manage. The creation of China’s International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) in 2018 can be seen as a concerted move by China to allay these concerns by making a stronger commitment towards a clearer distinction among the various types of Chinese financial flows. However, it remains difficult for recipient countries to navigate the system. This note aims to help recipient countries understand Chinese aid management and structures by providing an overview of those structures and what they mean for the future of aid from China. The note takes into account two key shifts in Chinese aid management in recent years: the formation of CIDCA, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)." (Summary)
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"Postcolonial Hangups in Southeast Asian Cinema explores a geopolitically situated set of cultures negotiating unique relationships to colonial history. These particular Singaporean, Malaysian, and Indonesian identities are discussed through a variety of commercial films, art cinema, and experimenta
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l work. It discovers instances of postcoloniality that manifest stylistically through Singapore's preoccupations with space, the importance of sound to Malay culture, and the Indonesian investment in genre." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines Turkish TV series’ recent success as canned programming primarily in newly developed and developing countries in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and South America through close textual analysis of a particularly popular Turkish adaptation, Bizim Hik
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aye (Our Story) (2017-2019) in comparison with its original, Shameless (2011-). I argue that Turkish series’ emphasis on nostalgic and melancholic narrative frames make them particularly appealing in these regions, as they deal with relatable circumstances of swift and traumatic changes under neoliberalism. However, female protagonists are allowed only a limited range of roles because of the reliance on nostalgia, thus, ultimately serving to re-legitimize patriarchal relations of domination." (Abstract)
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"This chapter deals with lèse-majesté laws and their impact on the exercise of freedom of political expression and journalism from the perspective of international human rights law. In doing so, it addresses the chilling effects of the application of a particular crime of lèse-majesté, namely
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defaming a head of state”, which are emphasized with historical and current examples from Turkey: a country that exemplifies the excesses in practice. Said excesses are assessed in light of the standards of freedom of political expression set by the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, which also demonstrates the excesses in other European countries and provides a comparative outlook. In conclusion, it is inferred that the mere existence of lèse-majesté crimes puts the rule of law at risk, thereby forcing journalists and other citizens alike to resort to self-censorship in violation of international human rights law as interpreted by the regional human rights mechanism." (Abstract)
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"This report [...] presents a bespoke analysis of how women around the world consume and perceive news, based on data on audience behaviour from 11 countries featured in the 2020 Reuters Institute Digital News Report: Kenya, South Africa, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Finland, Germa
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ny, United Kingdom, and United States. We have selected these 11 to represent as wide a geographical base as possible, and cover some of the richest and poorest countries in the report [...] As the country profiles show, a growing set of women-led protest movements against femicide, sexual assault, and online harassment around the world have created a new debate around how the news portrays women, and new conversations about who is in the newsroom deciding the agenda and framing the news. While news reporting has sometimes played an important role in these debates, it is also clear that many of them are driven by feminists who use social media as activist tools to speak out and organise against sexism and misogyny, sometimes in the news media too [...] Key Findings: Men are more likely than women to say that they are ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ interested in political news across all markets; Women are more likely than men to express high levels of interest in news about health and education; Women are more likely than men to report that they use TV news programmes or bulletins; Facebook is still an important source of news for both men and women, but YouTube and Twitter are more popular with men; Women will talk about news face to face with friends and family more than men. They are less likely to comment on news on news websites or on social media; Women’s levels of trust in news, and concern over ‘fake news’ online, are broadly similar to men’s." (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk)
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"First unveiled in 2015, the Digital Silk Road (DSR) component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted more political and commercial attention as technology-related tensions between the US and China have risen. Whereas large-scale traditional infrastructure projects have so far bee
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n the focus of the BRI, the DSR is using technologies that will serve as the foundation of a new digital economy. It is also becoming more central to the BRI—President Xi Jinping’s signature international initiative—as Chinese technology companies improve their ability to expand globally, developing countries begin embracing digital technologies and considering moving to next-generation 5G networks, and Xi focuses increasingly on technology self-reliance and R&D in key technology sectors. The DSR is best understood as an umbrella branding effort and a narrative for Beijing to promote its global vision across a range of technology areas and projects. However, it is Chinese private companies that are the main drivers of the initiative, often using the DSR label to gain policy support to pursue overseas commercial expansion." (Page 1)
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"This Information Ecosystem Assessment includes the thoughts and opinions of 48 migrant community leaders and migrant workers in Thailand. The information was collected through a series of qualitative and quantitative techniques, using remote data collection methodologies to ensure the safety of par
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ticipants and researchers and compliance with global and Thai specific restrictions on movement and gathering. Key findings: Information on labor rights and immigration status is not widely available and contributes to increased anxiety, and exploitation of migrants by employers. Risk communication during the pandemic readily conveys how to prevent spread and how to identify symptoms, but most migrants are more concerned about the economic impact of the crisis, and the impact on their legal work and immigration status. Migrants with a low comprehension of Thai language are dependent on community leaders, NGOs and secondhand information delivered through informal networks. Migrants called for government and media to share more information relevant to them in their primary language or to use more simplified Thai terminology when sharing health information and explaining government restrictions in relation to COVID-19." (Executive summary)
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"This book explores the media and conflict relationship in the age of social media through the lens of China. Inspired by the concepts of medialization of conflict and actor-network theory, this book centers on four main actors in wars and conflicts: social media platform, mainstream news organizati
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ons, online users and social media content. These four human and non-human actors associate, interact and negotiate with each other in the social media network. The central argument is that social media is playing an enabling role in contemporary wars and conflicts. Both professional media outlets and web users employ the functionalities of social media platforms to set, counter-set or expand the online public agenda. Social media platform embodies a web of technological and human complexities with different actors, factors, interests, and power relations. These four actors and the macro social-political context are influential in the medialization of conflict in the social media era." (Publisher description)
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"Media Culture in Transnational Asia: Convergences and Divergences examines contemporary media use within Asia, where over half of the world's population resides. The book addresses media use and practices by looking at the transnational exchanges of ideas, narratives, images, techniques, and values
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and how they influence media consumption and production throughout Asia, including: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran and many others. The book's contributors are especially interested in investigating media and their intersections with narrative, medium, technologies, and culture through the lenses that are particularly Asian by turning to Asian socio-political and cultural milieus as the meaningful interpretive framework to understand media." (Publisher description)
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"This document showcases a selection of success stories that have contributed to improving awareness of, and responses to, Violence Against Women (VAW) in Cambodia since 2012. It intends to highlight successes using media and communications investment to ending violence against women (EVAW). Here yo
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u’ll find stories from Cambodia; real stories about the champions and the implementing partners who make EVAW possible. Importantly, these stories are closely aligned with ABC ID’s expertise in media and communication. In each case study we include: testimonials; key success factors; key impacts; lessons learned and/or challenges." (Scope, page 4)
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"This study aimed to identify the factors that facilitate or inhibit new and aspiring journalists in Bangladesh to prepare for and join the profession. It also sought to determine the factors that would enable or restrict them from acquiring the necessary skill sets (particularly in educational inst
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itutions and media outlets) to succeed in professional journalism. Moreover, it identified the institutional policies and practices that demotivate new and aspiring journalism from continuing in the profession." (Conclusions, page 47)
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"This study analyzes the scholarship on the classification of war and peacemaking potential of media in the conflict-ridden milieu of Pakistan. Borrowing from peace studies and the existing journalistic practices in the country, the researchers present and empirically test a new model for evaluating
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conflict journalism in terms of its escalatory and de-escalatory trends. For this purpose, news stories telecasted in two leading TV channels (PTV and Geo News) relating to seven deadly conflicts were analyzed. We found support for our model—the higher the intensity of a conflict, the higher the escalatory trends in coverage. Patriotic and elite-controlled media produced more escalation as compared to conflict in which journalists were using relatively free media. Despite the dominance of escalatory coverage, we also found some traces of peace journalism in the reporting of conflicts. The study recommends that to promote peace journalism in Pakistan and elsewhere, the local context of a conflict and the journalistic environment should be studied. A mere replication of Western scholarship on peace journalism in non-Western settings would render it an impracticable ideal in real conflict scenarios." (Abstract)
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