The private sector print media industry in Myanmar is best characterized by its diversity, with about 400 licensed publications circulating. Of these, perhaps 100 fit into the category of news publications. There is no one single dominant player, with perhaps five to 10 large companies and many smaller operators. The private sector’s reach is however limited mostly to urban areas, particularly Yangon and Mandalay. With the government making encouraging moves towards reform, there is an acute need in Myanmar for well trained journalists to report on, and create awareness about, the...
Regions: Asia and the Pacific
In the last 20 years, Vietnam’s media landscape has expanded rapidly in terms of platforms, publications, journalists and audience figures. Though this represents an encouraging trend in terms of public access to information, the development has tended to be concentrated in the urban areas, with those living in remote, mountainous and ethnic minority communities being deprived of such improvement. Given this backdrop, since 2011, the Vietnamese Government has started to implement a “National Target Programme expanding information to remote, mountainous, border and islands areas” aimed at...
Southeast Asia is represented by a diverse range of countries in terms of politics, economy and culture, and a clear divergence in terms of respect and appreciation for fundamental human rights. The aforementioned diversity is also reflected in the media situation of the individual countries of the region, as found by respected international press freedom monitors. The 2010 press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders placed most of the countries in the region at the bottom quarter of the 178 countries assessed, while Freedom House concluded in its Freedom of the Press 2011 survey that...
In China, media and gender issues have come to the fore since the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. More reports and programmes on women are now produced, helping to diversify the image of women portrayed in the media. However in spite of these improvements, media representation of women still lags behind China’s development in general. Women remain stereotyped and marginalized in the media. Even in media specifically orientated at women, the representation aspect remains a problem. The Chinese Women’s NGOs Report on Beijing+15 pointed out that “there lacks gender...
When Mongolia became a free-market democracy in the 1990s the number of media outlets drastically increased and thus so did the need for qualified journalists and media professionals. In the past ten years the number of media outlets, including newspapers, television, radio and magazines, has doubled, and the number of media employees has increased threefold. Mongolian tertiary training institutions have tried to meet this demand for qualified journalists. Currently there are 18 state and private higher educational institutions which offer journalism courses. However, the media managers...
These include several regional, national and local channels with a constantly growing viewership. The print and electronic media in Pakistan has experienced a remarkable transformation in the last decade and now Pakistan enjoys a vibrant media scene with unprecedented diversity of opinion available in various ethnic languages. The electronic media can play an important role by highlighting local and national issues and performing a critical watchdog role. However, much of the new electronic media in Pakistan is relatively unsophisticated and most content revolves around entertainment....
In the 2011 Assessment of Media Development in Timor-Leste which is based on the UNESCO Media Development Indicators (MDI), media self-regulation is one of the prominent elements lacking in the current Timor-Leste media landscape. A healthy voluntary self-regulatory system within the media landscape is one of the cornerstones of freedom of expression, press freedom, and democratic governance. It is also the best means of guaranteeing high ethical and professional standards in journalism. Currently, there is no outlet to handle media complaints or to provide redress against unprofessional...
In many rural areas of Nepal, Community Radios (CR) represent the only form of media available, providing services to the marginalized and disadvantaged people who have often been ignored by mainstream media. With the continued increase of the CRs, effective implementation of a Code of Conduct has become vital to build on self-regulatory mechanisms in enhancing CR professionals’ unbiased coverage, honesty, accuracy and reliability. This project will establish a mechanism to hold CRs accountable to play a greater role as a watchdog. Self-regulation is a function that lies at the very the...
Journalism education was initiated in Nepal in 1976 as the Journalism Department of the Tribhuvan University (TU) was established with support from UNESCO. Today, there are three universities and approximately 170 colleges giving training in journalism in Nepal, and the Nepali media landscape is thriving with thousands of newspapers and magazines, hundreds of radio channels and more than 30 TV channels. Journalism and mass communication courses are witnessing considerable demand from students with intent on pursuing careers in journalism and communication.
While the boom in...
The Government of Bangladesh adopted the Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2009 and makes provisions for ensuring free flow of information and people’s right to information. The freedom of thought, conscience and speech are also recognized in the Constitution as a fundamental right, with the right to information being a distinguishable part of it. Technological advancement in recent years has led to a boom in broadcast media: 20 private TV channels and 8 Radio stations have been established in the past couple of years while traditional forms of journalism remain strong.
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