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Chaining the watchdog: Soft censorship and media...
“New construction seems devoted mostly to four-lane highways – the better to transport government troops into the state and minerals out of it.” – Amitava Kumar The use of economic development as a pretext to displace local communities in resource-rich areas is a familiar story. How ... |
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Five reasons why direct assistance is more vital...
By Chiranuch Premchaiporn In July 2008, I was forced to post an urgent call on our website – one that all independent media outlets dread: “We’re running out of money, we need your support to save Prachatai.” As the director of Prachatai, an independent media outlet in Thailand that I ha... |
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When Hate Goes Viral: The Danger of Social Media...
By Ashif Rabi Last November, a group of Bangladeshi Muslims attacked a Hindu neighborhood in the Eastern part of Bangladesh. Thousands of people ransacked the temples and homes of Hindu families. Attacks such as these on minorities are not a new thing in Bangladesh, but this particular incident ha... |
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In Vietnam, Digital is Democratizing
By Pham Muoi Nguyen and Dr. Quan-Hoang Vuong Vietnam has long been a place where media and newspapers are under strict control both by the government as well as the propaganda departments of the communist party. Although the country has more than 850 newspapers and magazines, the homogeneity in ... |
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Media Freedom in the New Burma: Defamation, Self...
By David Angeles With last November’s landslide election victory of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, the outlook for a successful democratic transition in Burma, also known as Myanmar, seems more positive than ever. Arguably, it was the initial opening of the medi... |
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Southeast Asia: An action plan to improve the me...
By: Jan Lublinski Editor’s Note: This post was first published on Deutsche Welle Akademie’s website and is republished here with permission. The media in Southeast Asia face a host of issues, foremost of which are government censorship, the concentration of ownership, the lack of political suppo... |
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What recent protests in the Democratic Republic ...
When people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took to Twitter in June to protest skyrocketing internet and mobile data prices, it was only the latest in a series of struggles between Congolese netizens and the government over internet policy. On May 17, netizens in the DRC were shocked t... |
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Distorting the News in Africa: How Dictators Hav...
By Elie Smith In response to the influence of Western media in their countries, African dictators have ramped up nationalistic and pan-African propaganda through government-sponsored media. These media outlets spend their time either painting an overly rosy picture of the situation in Africa, or att... |
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Highlights from the Global Media Policy Forum: T...
By Teemu Henriksson Editor’s Note: This post was first published on WAN-IFRA’s website and is republished here with permission. WAN-IFRA’s Public Affairs and Media Policy department held its annual Global Media Policy Forum held at the World News Media Congress on Monday 13 Ju... |
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Russia’s Internet Crackdown
By Guest Blogger As part of Russia’s authoritarian turn following Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in May 2012, the Kremlin has launched an unprecedented crackdown on the Russian Internet. A barrage of restrictive new laws, the blocking of websites critical of the government, the prose... |