The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) has released a report titled “The Politics of Media Development: The Importance of Engaging Government and Civil Society” written by Paul Rothman.
The report “outlines the key role of political support, the need for more nuanced understanding of political context, and how donors and implementers can more effectively engage drivers of change in the public sector to build support for media and media development work.”
The report emerged as a result of the realization that media is a political issue and in the field of media development, the public sector is often viewed as a barrier to the development of independent and sustainable media.
The report seeks to promote the understanding that now more than ever, the media development community needs to engage politically to effect change in the enabling environment for free and independent media. It encourages the media development community to rethink its approaches to public sector engagement in efforts to improve the environment for media systems in emerging and fragile democracies.
It explains that the enabling environment for media is an underrepresented and often undervalued facet of development and although governments frequently pervert and capture media sectors in countries around the globe, the enabling conditions under which media can achieve and maintain independence are nevertheless reliant on institutions of government.
CIMA will be focusing on the issue over the next four months and will be holding the first public event on September 30, 2015 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at CIMA’s office in Washington DC. The event will be free and participants can register at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-politics-of-media-development-tickets-18474547870
The event will also feature Thomas Carothers, Brian Levy, Lisa Williams, Marguerite Sullivan and will be moderated by Shanthi Kalathil .
For more information on the Center for International Media Assistance, visit www.cima.ned.org or contact CIMA@ned.org.
