"This policy report provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities that the media are facing in Slovakia. Based on a number of interviews that took place with key Slovak media stakeholders, it finds that the Slovak media landscape is currently the freest of the Visegrad countries, despite ... an increase in both government and oligarch control of media. These findings are in line with its RSF Press Freedom Ranking of 33rd place in 2020, up two places on the previous year. The murder of investigative reporter, Ján Kuciak, in 2018 was a turning point which established sense of solidarity amongst the media profession which is coupled with an apparent desire amongst some of the public to investigative journalism, demonstrated through their financial support of a number of influential independent media titles. There are some concerns in relation to mainstream media ownership which appears to remain firmly in the grip of a select number of financial groups and oligarchs with strong business and economic interests although a recent sale of shares in leading publication the Denník SME to the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), a non-for-profit investment fund for independent media raises some hope. The government also continues to control the public media through politicised appointment processes and public advertising spend. The popularity of websites, which are typified by health disinformation and anti-European Union narratives, is a further cause for concern as similar narratives are now being disseminated by some of the online media. The tradition for investigative journalism is strong in Slovakia, however, and it is having some impact on policy and tackling corruption." (Executive summary) more

"This research analysis aims to assess perceptions of media coverage of social cohesion in Ninewah and understand how content is consumed and assessed by audiences in the province. What this report has demonstrated is that while there is a distrust of the media at a national level, local media are p ... laying a fundamental role in providing citizens with information and news about topics that are important and relevant to reconciliation and rebuilding communities in post-IS Ninewah. Social media and activist accounts are also playing a significant role in the media information ecosystem in Ninewah. However, the political environment in Iraq is having a huge impact on both media coverage and analysis of key topics as well as on audiences’ perceptions of media coverage of such topics. There is still a clear need for increased content and a focus on topics that will support peace-building and social cohesion as the province of Ninewah recovers from the events of its recent past. The report concludes that audiences across different groups are fairly coherent and in agreement that the media should be playing a larger role in covering important topics related to diversity and religious difference in particular. They felt that the media had painted a false picture of Ninewah as a sectarian society and should be providing more positive and inclusive programming in order to combat the challenges that they faced as a society. Levels of awareness of the positive role that the media could play were high although trust in the media in general was low. This view was tempered by reactions to inaccurate portrayals of life in Ninewah post-IS and audiences also wanted to see the realities of their life in media content. Violent content and images were rejected however which is a significant point to demonstrate the impact and trauma incurred as a result of the occupation by IS." (Conclusions, page 28) more

"Corrupt practices, political financing and institutionalised patriarchal systems have seen the media fail to provide equitable coverage of women’s issues or indeed include women as decision-makers organisationally. Both the audience and media stakeholders are acutely aware of the lack of ethical ... practice by the media and both are attuned to how this has become gendered in prevailing conditions of economic failure, conflict and weak governance in Iraq. The overall mood was one of pessimism from all stakeholder groups about the current state of and prospects for the media in Iraq. The lack of opportunity in a non-meritocratic society such as Iraq both generates and sustains the prevalence of highly gendered policies and practices across the Iraqi media landscape. This is seen in both stakeholder groups: media stakeholders were likely to disparage their female colleagues; audiences were likely to reject female depictions that they felt were not representative of all Iraqis. Traditional and religious attitudes dominated much of the discussions and many of the challenges facing women and women journalists were attributed to these fixed mind-sets. Again, both stakeholder groups were in agreement that employment rituals and practices were shaped by patriarchal perceptions of a women’s role in traditional societies." (Conclusions) more

"Social media is the most dominant source of news, with television and radio both declining in popularity amongst young audiences. Social media is popular due to its accessibility and speed of reporting events. Countering the commonly high popularity of radio in Africa, radio was seen as outdated an ... d out of touch by the participants. Focus group participants suggested a generational gap with their parents’ generation more likely to consume radio. Audiences are engaging with international news content that is relevant to Sudan such as the US elections, conflict in Ethiopia, but are mainly interested in home news from government formation to the normal-isation of Sudanese relations with Israel. Coverage of events outside of Khartoum is seen to be weak and lacking, in particular for audiences based in marginalised areas such as Nyala who are more interested in local news from their area. They do not consider national television representative of their needs and are therefore more likely to follow local influencers on social media. Audiences are acutely aware of the lack of accuracy in the media and ubiquity of fake news and gossip. Credibility of social media accounts was assessed according to the number of followers that the account had, the longevity and history of the account as well as by levels of accuracy. Verification processes are used and consist mainly of cross-checking with official pages and sources, family, friends and colleagues. At the same time, exchange with families and friends was also seen to be contributing to the growing amount of disinformation in Sudan. Government communications with citizens is seen to be in disarray and this is contributing to the declining trust in institutions including the media. Trusted sources and information providers come however in the form of the individual Facebook pages and social media accounts of politicians and journalists." (Executive summary, page 7) more