"Turkey is a country where democratization process has been repeatedly interrupted by military interventions in the past 50 years. Censorship and self-censorship have become ordinary practices in the media, mainly due to weak parliamentary representations followed by oppressive coup periods. Yet eve
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n though a democratically elected government is currently in charge of the country, censorship of the press remains to be a common and systematic to silence alternative views. It is also claimed that self-censorship is widespread within the press. A report published by Freedom House in 2010 argues that while Turkish officials continue to enforce strict laws, journalists are frequently jailed for discussing issues such as the Kurdish problem, the military or political Islam. The government that is led by the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi) is continuing to crack down on unfavorable press coverage. This article presents the findings of a survey titled “Censorship and Self-Censorship in Turkey, 2011.” The participants of the study were Turkish journalists and the questions revolved around their personal experiences with regards to censorship and self-censorship. Their answers reveal why Turkish media seldom makes news for public interest." (Abstract)
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"This book captures a snapshot of the contemporary role of online journalism in rapidly evolving post-Soviet, post-Colour Revolution political environments, exploring the wider journalistic and political context alongside the use and influence of online news sites. In particular, it aims to fill a g
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ap in the literature by undertaking qualitative work in the post-Colour Revolution nations which seeks to assess the views of active journalists on the role of online political journalism in those environments." (Publisher description)
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"This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere. Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines “the digital divide” as the unequal access and utility of internet communic
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ations technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at: highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan); emerging large powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China); Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia); Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel); under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa)." (Publisher description)
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"How do students' online literacy practices intersect with online popular culture? In this book scholars from a range of countries including Australia, Lebanon, Nepal, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States illustrate and analyze how literacy practices that are mediated through and influ
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enced by popular culture create both opportunities and tensions for secondary and university students. The authors examine issues of theory, identity, and pedagogy as they address participatory popular culture sites such as fan forums, video, blogs, social networking sites, anime, memes, and comics and graphic novels." (Back cover)
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"The Report is composed of four thematic parts. Part 1 describes the conceptual framework and relates the findings of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) 2012. In addition, Part 1 features selected expert contributions on the general theme of hyperconnectivity. Part 2 includes two case studies showi
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ng the efforts that two countries, Azerbaijan and Mauritius, are making to develop ICT and fully leverage their potential benefits. Part 3 comprises detailed profiles for the 142 economies covered in this year’s Report, providing a thorough picture of each economy’s current networked readiness landscape and allowing for international comparisons of specific variables or components of the NRI. Part 4 includes data tables for each of the 53 variables composing the NRI, with rankings for the economies covered as well as technical notes and sources for the quantitative variables used." (Executive summary, page xi)
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"TThe 2012 MSI study for Europe & Eurasia revealed a mix of positive developments, regression, and stagnation (or resilience, depending on one’s point of view). Nearly half of the 21 countries included in this study showed little change either way, their overall score moving by 0.10 or less. Six c
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ountries showed improvement and five slid backward. The former Yugoslavia accounted for all but one of the countries with lower scores this year. Montenegro improved, Croatia remained roughly unchanged, but the rest of the former Yugoslavia—Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia—suffered losses (note that Slovenia is the only country of the former Yugoslavia not studied by the MSI) [...] Moldova continued to improve and achieved the highest score among the four countries in “Russia and Western Eurasia.” All objectives except Objective 4, Business Management, received a score in the “near sustainability” range. Armenia maintained its leadership amongst the three countries in the Caucasus. Its overall score remained mostly unchanged, although the score did slip slightly. Georgia continued to slowly regain ground lost in 2008. Russia’s score improved; despite serious lingering challenges, panelists expressed a cautious optimism that the situation will continue to improve in the coming years. Kyrgyzstan returned to the top spot in Central Asia as the political situation there stabilized. However, two objectives, those covering professional journalism and business management, remain well below the “near sustainability” range." (Executive summary, page ix)
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"This report finds that the momentous change in ownership transparency regulation and the dynamic and free online environment are the most notable success stories since 2005. Yet these achievements are overshadowed by the lack of independence of the broadcasting regulator and the public broadcaster,
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as well as the slow pace of digital transition. In order to promote positive change, three kinds of reform need to be undertaken. First, the process of drafting the legal framework for digital switch-over must be made transparent and show results in the near future if the country is to be ready for the transition before the switch-off date in 2015. The public interest provisions, must-carry rules, and transparent spectrum allocation and gatekeeping should be given priority. Second, with public awareness of the purpose and implications of switch-over virtually non-existent, an information campaign and public debate need to start without delay. Finally, the independence of two key institutions, the Georgian National Communications Commission and the Georgian Public Broadcaster, needs to be strengthened. In both cases, this can be done by adopting clearer regulatory safeguards against government interference, enforcing transparency, and ensuring civil society participation in selection procedures." (Website Open Society Foundations)
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"Research on Internet usage in developing regions typically focuses on user demographics or challenges to usage. However, few studies explore the needs and desires of users in developing regions—that is, what users want from the Internet—and even fewer connect those needs with the skills require
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d to meet them. This article addresses that gap by exploring Central Asian Internet users’ expectations of Internet utility and relating those expectations to usage patterns. We found that the users whose expectations were met were those who engaged in a diverse range of online activities. We also investigated the relationship between usage characteristics and diversity of online activities and concluded that frequent and occasional Internet users were equally likely to seek information online, but frequent users engaged in more diverse activities related to interaction with others, entertainment, and financial transactions." (Abstract)
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"Turkmenistan is slowly emerging from decades of darkness. President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov has vowed to modernize the country by encouraging the uptake of new technology for economic development and more ef!cient governance. Hundreds of thousands of Turkmen citizens are now online. However, the
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country faces serious challenges as it prepares to go digital. Infrastructure is primitive, and public access is fully controlled by a stateowned monopoly. Slow speeds, exorbitant pricing, and technological illiteracy all constitute major hurdles. Authorities are moving to address the capacity problem, but Turkmenistan’s repressive regime is unlikely to relinquish its stranglehold on cyberspace access and content. All media – including the internet – are closely controlled. State censorship and surveillance are signi!cant, as are intimidation tactics that encourage user self-censorship. This study highlights the ambivalent policies and practices that have left Turkmenistan mired in the digital doldrums, torn between its desire to join the worldwide web and its compulsion to control cyberspace." (Executive summary)
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"This report evaluates the risks and vulnerabilities of mobile phone services and apps in 12 specified countries: the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the People’s Republic of China, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Libya, the Sultanate of Oman, the Kingdom
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of Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Tunisian Republic, the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Rather than focus on a single innovation, this study analyzes multiple mobile technologies – including operating systems, applications and mobile protocols – to determine their capacity to protect security and privacy and to combat censorship and surveillance. Throughout this study the protection of mobile phone users was of paramount importance." (Executive summary)
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"GISWatch 2012 explores how the internet is being used to ensure transparency and accountability, the challenges that civil society activists face in fighting corruption, and when the internet fails as an enabler of a transparent and fair society. The eight thematic reports and 48 country reports pu
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blished ask provocative questions such as: Is a surveillance society necessarily a bad thing if it fights corruption? And how successful have e-government programmes been in fighting corruption? They explore options for activism by youth and musicians online, as well as the art of using visual evidence to expose delusions of power. By focusing on individual cases or stories of corruption, the country reports take a practical look at the role of the internet in combating corruption at all levels." (Back cover)
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"This working paper envisages analyzing issues related to media and national minorities in Georgia in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the current situation of minority media and of the impact of media on majority-minority relations. To gather data on this topic, 30 interviews with variou
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s media and NGO actors both in Tbilisi and the regions were conducted from October 2010 through April 2011." (Abstract)
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