"This handbook is intended to be a desk reference for small, independent and community media organisations, equipping journalists with the following tools: enable small independent and community media to counter growing media censorship in South Africa, and to ensure that these media are aware of th
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eir rights and how to protect and enforce them; provide user-friendly information about the current state of the law of defamation, and to provide checklists to see whether particular reports are defamatory; provide useful information about what to do if particular reports do attract threats or legal action; ensure that a working knowledge of media freedom issues is also built up at paralegal and advice office level, so that legal capacity is built to support grassroots media; inform such media about the other laws in existence that affect their ability to report; ensure that journalists are appraised of their rights around source protection, so that they are not pressurized to reveal confidential sources; appraise these media of the complexity of the questions around the use of journalists as witnesses; encourage these media to become freedom of expression advocates, and to appraise them of the avenues available to lobby on specific freedom of expression issues." (Summary)
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"How can racist, xenophobic propaganda be proscribed without trespassing on individual freedom of expression? How can a suspect’s right to be presumed innocent be protected without placing restrictions on the public’s right to information? Where should we draw the line concerning the criticism o
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f politicians by the media? It is by answering these and many similar questions over a period of almost fifty years that the European Court of Human Rights has developed its case-law in respect of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, presented in summary form in this human rights file." (Back cover)
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"Section 1 focuses on campaign strategies. Mats Abrahamsson, a former Greenpeace campaign coordinator and founder of the Swedish consultancy Selene, shows you: how to develop a strategic framework for campaigning that helps campaigners choose the activities that can best meet their objectives and av
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oid rushing into activities that misuse time and resources (Section 1.1); how to conduct a “power analysis” that identifies the powers at play and how they interact in order to deploy limited resources where they can have the greatest impact (Section 1.2); how a Greenpeace campaign convinced Coca-Cola to stop using ozone-destroying chemicals in all its refrigeration equipment (Section 1.3). Section Two shows an example of an IFEX member – the Media Institute of Southern Africa – that has realised the need to build on, and go beyond, the issuing of alerts by developing a strategic vision for defending freedom of expression (chapter 7). Section Three provides 10 campaign tools that IFEX members can use to compliment the issuing of alerts. These tools can be used separately or in combination with each other as part of a campaign. Each tool comprises: a toolbox of tips, ideas and questions to consider; a best practice case study of an IFEX member or other organisation that has successfully used the campaign tool; a list of resources for further information." (Page 7)
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"This book aims to record political activism on the Internet and "take stock of some of the successes and failures of cyberactivists as they try to beat the various censorship regimes in Asia." The sections of this 664-page book comprise of 'Political Frameworks & New Technology', 'Regulations and C
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ontrol', 'One Party States', 'Alternative Media', 'Civil Society', 'Diaspora Communities', and 'Political Parties'. The book's 18 chapters provide an overview of current trends in democracy related new media research to country-specific case studies. "The common thread running through the book is the organizing of civil society groups at the grassroots level, and how they are influencing certain segments of their respective countries, and even challenging state control and the monopoly of mainstream media." Asian Cyberactivism strives to examine political organising online in Asia even as the technology and the rules change. Activists provide their perspectives on how new media relates to democracy, and showcase examples that could be emulated to further the cause of democracy." (Communication Initiative)
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"There are considerable regional variations in media exposure across and within African countries. Take access to daily radio news bulletins, which is higher in Southern Africa (except Lesotho) than in West Africa: whereas 71 percent of South Africans listen to radio news daily, only 44 percent of N
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igerians and 41 percent of Ghanaians do so (see Figure 3). Moreover, while radio listening is widespread, other media are used mainly in urban areas: town dwellers are four times more likely than rural residents to read a daily newspaper (23 percent versus 6 percent) and five times more likely to watch television every day (44 versus 8 percent). As such, urban news consumers have a wider choice of news sources than their country cousins, who tend to rely mainly on government-controlled national radio broadcasts." (Page 3)
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