In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain
the voice of the multitude.                  – George Washington

Publications Archive
2011

Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development

CIMA is pleased to release a new report, Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development, by Anne Nelson, an international media consultant. This work is an update of the October 2009 CIMA report, Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development by the same author. This report describes and analyzes the evolving landscape of private donor support for media development.

Challenges for Independent Media in a Post-Gaddafi Libya

This report is the result of a roundtable discussion hosted by CIMA on October 6, 2011.

Media Codes of Ethics: The Difficulty of Defining Standards

Codes of Ethics incorporate best practices that may go beyond the laws of libel, defamation, and privacy. In the not-so-free world, these codes are not always the products of a self-regulating free press. They may represent a cultural and political compromise with a society or government that holds a more restrictive view of what journalists should and should not report. Media Codes of Ethics: The Difficulty of Defining Standards examines the different types of media codes of ethics and offers recommendations for making them more robust and useful in efforts to raise standards of journalism.

The Legal Enabling Environment for Independent Media in Egypt and Tunisia

This report is the result of a roundtable discussion co-hosted by CIMA and Internews Network on September 1, 2011.

News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem

Mobile devices now reach the farthest corners of the world. By the end of 2011, about 5 billion mobile phones will be in service in a world with 7 billion people. The implications–for politics, for education, for economies, for civil society, and for news and information–are profound. News on the Go: How Mobile Devices Are Changing the World's Information Ecosystem examines how a global information society might look with mobile media devices at its hub.

Matching the Market and the Model: The Business of Independent News Media

Matching the Market and the Model: The Business of Independent News Media, by Michelle J. Foster, a veteran international media management and marketing consultant. The report explains how lack of management skills and inexperience in developing effective business models poses a significant risk to the sustainability of independent news media. It explores a variety of different business models for media in several countries around the world and examines what lessons can be learned from those experiences.

Media and the Law: An Overview of Legal Issues and Challenges

Media and the Law: An Overview of Legal Issues and Challenges examines the different kinds of laws that affect the media and explains how they are used in many countries to influence the operations of news outlets and the information they offer. It primarily focuses on restrictive laws and legal challenges faced by journalists in developing countries, although laws in developed countries dealing with issues such as libel and terrorism are also considered.

Confronting the News: The State of Independent Media in Latin America

Confronting the News: The State of Independent Media in Latin America calls attention to the deteriorating environments for independent news media in many Latin American countries as governments across the region increasingly push for limits on the press and explores tactics used by these governments to silence the media.

Independent Media in Exile

Independent Media in Exile explores the challenges faced by journalists living in exile from countries with repressive regimes and examines the impact that their courageous reporting makes in their home countries. Drawing on the results of a survey of 36 individuals representing 33 exile media organizations from 18 countries, the report calls for increased coordination among journalists and organizations operating in exile and encourages donors and trainers to actively assist exile media. 

Funding Free Expression: Perceptions and Reality in a Changing Landscape

Funding Free Expression: Perceptions and Reality in a Changing Landscape, researched in collaboration with the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), explores shifts in funding patterns for international freedom of expression activity. It is based on a survey of 21 major donors representing a broad range of private foundations and and government and multilateral aid agencies in North America and Europe.

Voices from Villages: Community Radio in the Developing World

Voices from Villages: Community Radio in the Developing World explores the expansion of community radio in developing countries and the constraints and challenges these stations still faces. It also looks at community radio's record in terms of economic and political development and examines its real achievements against its ideals.

Iraq’s News Media After Saddam: Liberation, Repression, and Future Prospects

Iraq’s News Media After Saddam: Liberation, Repression, and Future Prospects examines the state of Iraq’s media and provides a prognosis for the future as seen through the eyes of Iraqi journalists, international media developers on the scene, and scholars who have studied the dynamics of Iraq’s nascent independent press.

Social Media in the Arab World: Leading up to the Uprisings of 2011

Social Media in the Arab World: Leading up to the Uprisings of 2011 examines the impact of digital media on freedom of expression in the Middle East prior to the 2011 protests.

Caught in the Middle: Central and Eastern European Journalism at a Crossroads

Caught in the Middle: Central and Eastern European Journalism at a Crossroads, by Ellen Hume, a veteran journalist and international media analyst and consultant, examines the state of independent news media in Central and Eastern Europe 20 years after the fall of communism.