"A radio station for Somalis, by Somalis and about Somalis went on air on 1 March 2010. Radio Bar-Kulan ('meeting place' in Somali) uses FM, short wave, satellite and the internet to ensure that access is available to all who want it. The history of the station has its roots in peacekeeping. The suc
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cess of another radio service [Radio Okapi in DRC] helped convince the people with money that perhaps Somalia needed similar treatment. Bar-Kulan is still very much a work in progress. It was born out of need and developed through compromise. I am a director of the implementing agency for Bar-Kulan and I cannot overemphasize the importance of radio in a society that is in conflict and is overwhelmingly oral." (Introduction)
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"This article analyses the uses of the ‘community’ and ‘peace media’ labels in northern Uganda. It tries to assess their effect on power configurations and on the practices and the representations of media workers. In order to do so, it analyses how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have
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penetrated the local media and have modified the rules of the game, in terms of access to resources and protection from repression, but also in terms of the definition of professionalism. It shows how a local radio station, Mega FM, has managed to negotiate its dependence on the state and on international NGOs, including how it has succeeded in dominating the local media market, by embracing these media models. Finally, all these dynamics are illustrated and nourished by a shift in the professional values: the media workers now value the ‘responsibility’ of the media understood as a support to the peace process." (Abstract)
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"International donor support for Afghanistan's media has had two primary goal The short-term goal has been to counteract the effects of insurgent communications in order to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. The long-term goal has been to create a free and independent media sector that w
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ill continue to function after donor support has ended. Although millions of dollars have been invested in the development of the Afghan media sector and the growth of private media since 2001 is considered one of Afghanistan's greatest success stories,neither of these donor goals is being met. Donor support for Afghan media has led to the growth of radio and television outlets that are almost entirely dependent on foreign funding - direct and indirect. Recent strategic communications policies have neither diminished nor adequately countered the presence of extremist voices in Afghanistan. Despite some examples to the contrary, Taliban communications continue to affect the lives of ordinary Afghans, whereas many communications by and from Western sources do not. Neither short- nor mid-term analysis of the Afghan economy - ranked the third poorest in the world by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) - foresees the growth of a market able to sustain Afghanistan's domestic media sector without foreign financing. The limited impact of Western communications endeavors, in conjunction with the predicted continued weakness of the Afghan economy, reveals an urgent need for a dramatic shift in the media strategies and goals pursued by the United States and its allies. First and foremost, donors should invest primarily in the Afghan media's production and dissemination of socially constructive contents rather than in building media institutions or infrastructure that the Afghan economy cannot support. For these contents to be received as authentic and credible, they must reflect the vulnerabilities and priorities that Afghans themselves have identified as vital. Donors should make a multiyear funding commitment to the media in Afghanistan. Support should be allocated to both terrestrial and wireless media through a transparent and competitive process developed jointly by donors and Afghan media experts. Aggressively supporting the dissemination of socially constructive contents through new outlets will permit access to both geographic and demographic segments of the population not adequately served by current media outlets." (Summary)
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"For almost twenty years, United Nations peacekeeping missions have set up local radio stations in conflict-prone countries - 14 to date, seven of which remain in operation. According to this report, some of the fourteen peacekeeping radio stations implemented by the United Nations contributed more
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to democratisation and media development in certain post-conflict countries than any other media assistance programmes. Surveys have confirmed their popularity and credibility with national audiences, and local journalists have lauded their contributions to media diversity and journalism standards. Nevertheless, Bill Orme states that the UN radios were created without long-term planning. Upon disappearance of UN peacekeeping missions the stations were simply closed, therefore losing their positive effects on democratisation and plurality. Only in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Radio Okapi) were there serious attempts to continue the stations after the exit of the UN missions. Based on detailed description and analysis of the different experiences, Orme formulates a number of policy steps that would help UN radios to become lasting contributions to press freedom and peacekeeping." (CAMECO Update 2-2010)
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"After the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, Iraq's news media environment transformed almost overnight from the tightly controlled propaganda arm of Saddam Hussein's rule into one of the most diverse and unrestricted news environments in the Middle East. Built in an atmosphere of chaos and conflict
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, Iraq's media landscape now reflects the ethno-sectarian divide in the country. These deeply partisan news outlets have the potential to widen the gap between communities and weaken the national identity. However, new studies show the majority of Iraqis have learned to read the media landscape, sampling news programs across the sectarian divide with a high level of distrust for all news outlets. This paper describes the Iraqi media and raises key questions: Is the Iraq news media an environment that encourages democracy and state building? What are the prospects to retain an open and pluralistic media landscape within Iraq's sectarian system?" (Abstract)
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"This report presents the author's experiences regarding the relation of international interventions and local institutions in the (post-)conflict countries of Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan. Haselock states that media reforms are most successful where they are the result of partnership
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s with local stakeholders, or where local professionals and the civil society have taken ownership of the peacebuilding process. This approach involves international planners having a high understanding of the social and cultural situation and the conditions of the conflict. Therefore, they need to be part of two-way communication, where they are regarded as learners, following a "you know best", instead of a "we know best" approach. However, Haselock shows that foreign implementers often do not include local stakeholders enough, evoking refusal of international peacebuilding interventions." (commbox)
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"Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the Afghan media sector has experienced dramatic growth in all areas: television, radio, print, internet, mobile phones. As such, the sector holds tremendous potential for making significant contributions to peacebuilding in the country. However, the media sec
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tor also confronts numerous challenges that impede its ability to realize this potential – which can only be addressed through the combined efforts and attention of international and domestic stakeholders alike. Among the most pressing challenges is resolving the tension between information operations and counterinsurgency, on the one hand, and developing a viable, credible media sector on the other. All too often efforts to counter extremist messages through expanded military and government access to the airwaves (via purchased air time and proliferating “radio in a box” broadcasts from military outposts) have had a negative impact on both media market economics and media credibility. Sustainability is also a significant issue. A glut of media outlets has arisen that are privately licensed yet sustained by international donor funds and strategic communications money. This has had a deleterious effect on the perception of media, and its effectiveness as a guardian of public interests. The shortcomings of state-owned RTA as a public broadcaster further contribute to this, leading many experts to call for greater investment in long-term training and mentoring as well as regulatory reform to limit government manipulation of the airwaves." (Summary)
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"This publication provides examples of the way in which media can be used for the non-violent management of regional conflicts. Practitioners from radio initiatives in Chad, Niger, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo report their experiences regarding the function and perception of the media i
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n both conflict management and the promotion of peace. The publication also shows the different contexts in which radio may be used to supply the largely illiterate population with basic information (in Niger) or as a platform for political debate (Southern Chad). The reports from the field are complemented by conceptual considerations on media in conflict-prone societies." (CAMECO Update 4-2009)
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"The essential thesis of this paper is that the requirements and problems of the media sector differ substantially from country to country according to its political, social and economic conditions: in authoritarian states the scope and intensity of media assistance is quite limited, whereas democra
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tizing countries are open for foreign assistance on developing an independent media sector; in war-torn societies the first objective should be to provide increased access to accurate news, and post-conflict societies offer good opportunities for the promotion of independent media. For each of these four categories the paper proposes different media assistance intervention strategies." (commbox)
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"Much violent conflict today takes place in or near civilian populations with access to global information networks, so the information gathered by various parties to conflict may potentially be distributed in real time around the globe. The ability to communicate, and to produce and receive diverse
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information through participatory media, is part of a struggle within conflictprone societies between allowing for non-coercive debates and dialogue that focus on endemic weak-state problems and enabling those seeking power to organize for political influence, recruitment, demonstrations, political violence, and terror [...] The question of whether the presence of digital media networks will encourage violence or lead to peaceful solutions may be viewed as a contest between the two possible outcomes. It is possible to build communications architectures that encourage dialogue and nonviolent political solutions. However, it is equally possible for digital media to increase polarization, strengthen biases, and foment violence." (Executive summary, page 8)
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"This study analyzes US attempts to remake the Iraqi mediascape, its law and content between 2003 and 2008. It concludes that post-invasion media development was so poorly structured and implemented that it was doomed from the start. This is true despite and because of the millions of dollars spent
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by and on private US contractors, and despite the involvement of several countries, international human rights agencies, and private publications from across the US political spectrum. The main culprits remain the lack of oversight regarding the millions the United States has spent attempting to privatize Iraqi media development, and the failure of the Bush administration to include independent-minded Iraqi and Arab professionals in its post-invasion media reconstruction project, or to learn from the long struggles of Arab journalists with their respective governments." (Abstract)
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"Donor policies place great emphasis on the importance of state-building in post-Conflict states, and many donors also recognize the relevance civil society and a professional media sector have for successful transformation processes, says this report. However, operationally and conceptually these a
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reas are treated as separate sectors. Current post-Conflict assistance, this study argues, fails to pay sufficient attention to the links between state institutions, civil society and the media. In the first part, it reviews the current state-building debate and introduces the public sphere framework. For practitioners, the study provides a public sphere assessment toolkit and a toolbox for interventions. The second part provides the reader with a public sphere analysis of Timor Leste, Liberia and Burundi, and recommendations on how to address the specific challenges observed in these countries." (CAMECO Update 5-2008)
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"There is very little undestanding of the role that communicartion processes play in the numerous starnds of post-conflict reconstruction, including peacebuilding, governance, and long-term development. This paper addressess this gap by distilling lessons learned from the media and communication str
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ategies of different donors. It takes as its primary case study the Office of Transition Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has long track record of media and communication work in post-conflict environments. In doing so, it seeks to present a new model for understanding and working with communication in post-conflict and fragile environments." (Foreword)
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