"There are over 250 radio stations in Mali, and two TV stations that serve a population of 16 million, of whom one of every five own a TV set. The author argues that Mali’s state broadcaster ORTM must use the opportunity of a new political dispensation and usher in urgent reforms if its rich histo
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ry of media proliferation, political pluralism and democracy are to be consolidated. He further makes the case for the urgent need by the new Malian government to revisit state policy on the digital switch over, an eminent process that Mali must undertake. Failing which, all the gains that the country has made could be lost." (www.afrimap.org)
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"Estonians have demonstrated a keen appetite for digital media uptake. More than three-quarters of the population accesses the internet regularly, and more than half of those are active on social networking platforms. Recent surveys suggest that nearly a quarter of internet users now connect via sma
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rtphones. As for traditional media, newspaper circulations have experienced a steady rather than dramatic decline over recent years, while television and radio audiences remain relatively stable. The press and news organizations remain in general relatively free of political influence, and although there is significant cross-media ownership and little opportunity for new entrants, digitization does not appear to have exacerbated this situation, and there remains a degree of competition and pluralism within all sectors. This report calls for the development of media policy that will incentivize television service providers to introduce the additional digital television services that were promoted during switch-over. They also call for long-term predictable funding mechanisms to ensure that public service media, Estonian Public Broadcasting (Eesti Rahvusringhääling, ERR) above all, provide quality output." (Open Society Foundations website)
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This report addresses the state of the media in Syria; the laws that regulate and restrict the media, and the attacks on the media and journalists. The report also provides a Media Map, a list of print and online publications, radio and TV stations in Syria. According to the conclusion, "the interna
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tional community and media development organizations should provide funding and training courses for media establishments in Syria that are committed to professional and objective reporting and that promote diversity and tolerance in the country."
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"Digitization has had profound effects in Brazil. In journalism, information flows faster than ever, and from a greater number of sources; journalists have to adapt to an environment that demands immediate coverage of events, sometimes privileging speed over content. The internet has become the seco
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nd main source of news, and the number of people reading newspapers online has nearly tripled over four years. Brazilians are heavy users of social media and user-generated content platforms, with Facebook and YouTube being the second and fourth most accessed URLs in September 2013. Access to mobile telecommunications is widespread, and there are more SIM cards circulating in Brazil than there are Brazilians. However, serious gaps in internet regulation topics such as net neutrality, ISP liability, privacy, and user rights still have not been addressed by legislation. In an attempt to fill these gaps, the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet (Marco Civil da Internet), a draft bill produced through a process of public online debate carried out by the Ministry of Justice, was sent to the National Congress in 2011. The text faced strong opposition from some quarters, and the bill has not yet been introduced in Congress." (Publisher description)
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"The current UIS Questionnaire on Media Statistics provides information for three UNESCO frameworks, namely the Media and Information Literacy Framework, the Media Development Indicators Framework and the Framework for Cultural Statistics. The questionnaire collects data for reporting global progres
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s on Action Lines C2, C3, C8 and C9 of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in UNESCO’s fields of competencies. In particular, Action Line C9 recommends appropriate policies to foster and sustain media and information development. This document provides country profiles for each of the countries that participated in the two pilot surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012." (Background, page 3)
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"The media sector in West Africa has seen significant region-wide improvements, attributable not just to improvements in isolated cases but to general improvements in all countries. Nevertheless, despite general improvement, aspects of the media sector lag behind others, including: 1) government har
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assment of journalists, 2) weak or lacking media criticism of government, 3) unequal distribution of citizen access to media, and 4) gender imbalance among journalists. Countries where the media sector is faring less well than in other nations are Guinea, Nigeria, and Togo. Detailed analysis of four critical indicators reveals that: government censorship persists even in relatively democratic countries like Benin and Senegal, and remains a major problem in Togo and Guinea; government harassment of journalists is occurring in several countries, particularly Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Benin, and Senegal; media bias has diminished across the region compared to the past, except in Nigeria; media corruption is very significant in most West African countries. The problem may now be the region's largest single threat to democratic rights in this sector." (Executive summary)
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"The research for this report was developed and undertaken between June 2012 and April 2013 across 14 Pacific Island nations: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Republic of Nauru, Niue, Republic of Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon I
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slands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. The report provides a regional overview of the PACMAS key components (Media Policy, Media Systems, Media Capacity Building and Media Content) as they emerged through 212 interviews focused upon the six PACMAS strategic areas. It also provides basic background information, an overview of the media and communications landscape and discusses in detail media and communications technicians; emergency broadcast systems, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs), media associations, climate change and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). For this reason, observations on the four PACMAS components should be understood to represent changes in the media and communication environment based upon an investigation focused on the PACMAS strategic activities." (www.pacmas.org)
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"The objective of this IST Briefing Note issue is to provide an up to date list of Somali media outlets. The aim of this paper is to help relevant actors understand the landscape of Somali media and use this information in order to guide their engagement and approach with Somali media outlets. Based
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on empirical research this review includes: key findings; a brief presentation of the media observatory project; followed by a list of all media outlets (Radios, TV, print and news websites) according to their geographic location in South/Central Somalia, Puntland and Somaliland." (Page 1)
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"Pakistan has long suffered from high inflation, led by soaring food prices, which has increased poverty levels. According to the United Nations’ 2011 Human Development Report, half the population suffers deprivations of all types. Only half is literate. Even then there are only 12 million televis
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ion sets (surely a desirable medium for those who cannot read)—one for every 14 people. This means a lot of communal watching of mostly state-owned channels of the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV). At present, the only other terrestrial television channel is the privately owned ATV, in which PTV and the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation are majority (80 percent) shareholders. The sameness is deafening. However, urban Pakistanis are getting richer and spending money on alternatives. Thus PTV has ceded ground to more than 20 privately owned broadcasters with 89 domestic and 26 foreign channels, with national television viewing split evenly between terrestrial on the one hand, and cable and satellite on the other. This proliferation of channels has enabled Pakistani media to wield more influence over politics and public discourse than ever before. With this growing influence comes, however, a corresponding increase in attempts by the government to control media outlets. Indeed, state coercion and increasing censorship are among the greatest pressures on the media industry." (Website Open Society Foundations)
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