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Violence Against Saudi Arabian Blogger
**Update: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died on January 22. He will be succeeded by his brother, Crown Prince Salman. Additionally on January 22, Raif Badawi’s public flogging was postponed for the second week in a row due his worsening medical condition. The international community will con... |
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The Self-Defeating Censorship of Xi Jinping
When Xi Jinping emerged as the likely successor to the Chairmanship of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2008, there was hope among Western leaders that he would usher in a more open and politically pragmatic era for China. After all, Xi’s generation is largely removed from the revolutionary st... |
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Measuring the Audience
A Wrap-Up of CIMA’s Discussion As the coordinator of CIMA’s events, I spend a lot of time on a lot of different topics—from hammering out the concept of the event to finding panelists to wrapping my mind around topics that I am sometimes, frankly, not the most familiar with. This event was... |
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Making the Case for Media’s Impact on Demo...
Those working in the media development field may often take for granted the idea that independent media, and its counterpart, access to information, are essential to a free and open society. The burden of proof falls upon us to show the impact of media on development issues like good governance, and... |
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The Global Transition to Digital TV Broadcasting
This year marks a deadline for a global agreement to transition from the obsolescent analog technology to digital broadcasting for television. Though the deadline is self-imposed, with no formal sanctions if it is missed, it marks a possible turning point for many countries’ media development. ... |
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Attack on Charlie Hebdo Magazine is an Attack on...
The attack on Charlie Hebdo today is an attack on free expression everywhere. At least 12 were killed and several others wounded when gunmen invaded the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo early this morning. Though the perpetrators are still unknown, officials believe it is the wor... |
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A New World Order: Journalists versus ‘Democra...
Journalists are no longer special. That is Joel Simon’s sad but all-too-true assessment of why journalists are becoming an endangered species in many parts of the world. By CPJ’s count 60 journalists around the world were killed in 2014. “We live in an information age, and yet the people who b... |
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The Role of Audience Research in Independent Med...
“Know your audience” is the basic tenet of any communicator—and newsrooms are no different. In fact, a failure to understand their audiences will certainly lead to a news organization’s failure; either failure to report on facts and events relevant to their communities, or failure to keep an... |
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Turmoil in Turkey: Raids on Media Outlets
The media in Turkey has had a difficult year. Following last December’s corruption scandal human rights and press freedom groups from around the world have condemned the Turkish governments’ actions against the media. In March, Twitter and YouTube were shuttered following a leaked recording ... |
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Soft Censorship in Argentina
In Argentina, there are plenty of news outlets that freely criticize and question the government, which many would argue is a sign of a healthy media environment. According to Freedom House’s 2014 figures for Freedom of the Press, however, Argentina only ranks as “partly free.” T... |