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Regional Cooperation and a Post-COVID World: The...
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the challenges confronting independent media and forced the media development community—journalists, donors, media practitioners—to rethink how to support for sustainable media ecosystems. Among the wealth of ideas put forward is the need for greater regiona... |
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Uprooting hate speech: The challenging task of c...
By Yohannes Eneyew Ayalew While many have lauded social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for being open spaces for self-expression, there is no doubt that this openness can also be problematic. This is particularly true when it comes to hate speech or other dangerous content. Plat... |
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Local radio stations in Africa prove resilient a...
By Mary Myers, Nicola Harford, and Martin Ssemakula Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, radio remains a dominant source of news and information for a vast majority of people. These media outlets are a lifeline for citizens during a public health crisis. They provide vital information on how to stay healt... |
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Declining public support for media freedom in Af...
By Jeff Conroy-Krutz & Josephine Appiah-Nyamekye Sanny Media liberalization and the emergence of independent media outlets in many African countries over the past few decades has played a central role in democratization. Take, for example, the case of Senegal. Just thirty years ago, there was ju... |
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Between Hope and Fear: Ethiopian Media in the Ag...
By Simegnish Mengesha When I was forced to leave Ethiopia in 2014, it was a dangerous time to be a journalist. Attempting to dig deeper into politics and be critical of the government had a price. A sweeping Anti-Terrorism Proclamation was systematically used to crack down against journalists and wh... |
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A Critical Juncture in West Africa: Why Regional...
In CIMA’s recent report, A Regional Approach to Media Development in West Africa, co-published with the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), authors Dr. Gilbert Tietaah and Sulemana Braimah note that West Africa is at a “critical juncture” in terms of media freedom, pluralism, and democrat... |
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A Road-map for Meaningful Media Reform in Ethiop...
By Asmamaw Gizaw The rapid political opening in Ethiopia over the past year has seen an uptick in journalistic freedom and a sincere effort on the part of the government to foster a robust, independent, and diverse media sphere. To continue this progress, reforms efforts must work to undo the legaci... |
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Social Media Taxes: A Financial Barrier for Inde...
With press freedom and freedom of speech increasingly under attack, social media is often the last space in many countries for independent voices. This has been especially true in countries where governments are openly hostile to news organizations. More recently, however, many governments have begu... |
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Putting machine learning to work to measure medi...
By Samhir Vasdev Quality, fact-based news—and trust between citizens and journalists—is essential to helping people make informed decisions about important issues. But traditional methods to evaluate media content are resource-intensive and time-consuming. Pilot research by IREX suggests that, w... |
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Ethiopia is Unshackling the Media, but True Inde...
By Henok Fente Just a few months ago, Ethiopia was one of the countries with the highest number of imprisoned and exiled journalists. Now, a new prime minister is promising that his government will respect freedom of speech as part of a swift move toward democracy. “Building democratic institutio... |