In Mongolia, a long overdue Law on Gender Equality was passed in February 2011. The law is explicitly prohibiting any act of exclusion, restriction and discrimination against women in every sphere. The legislation obliges central and local governments, political parties, private employers including media organizations to install regulations and mechanisms to ensure gender equality and to fight sexual harassment, and introduce penalties to those who break them. The government has also set up a task force to draft a new Gender Equality Action Plan for the next 5 years.

In spite of ...

Nepal has a vibrant and rapidly growing media sector. According to the Press Council Nepal there are 89 daily newspaper and more than 381 weekly newspapers. In addition, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication, there are more than 326 FM stations and 38 Television channels in operation. Although the number of media houses and the number of people interested in making a career in journalism have gone up in recent years, there are still very few women journalists. According to the statistics of Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), out of the total 9000 journalists, only...

It has been over three years since the Right to Information (RTI) Act was passed in Bangladesh, but no significant steps have been taken by the government to implement the Act, nor to raise awareness of it. Many journalists, both senior and junior, are not well aware of the RTI Act, in spite of its potential to play an important role in their professional duties (particularly filing follow-up, in-depth and investigative reports by using the RTI Act as a tool for information gathering.

In an attempt to address the issue, this project is aimed at raising local journalists' awareness...

Malgré l’existence d’un environnement médiatique plutôt favorable depuis les élections en 2009 qui ont marqué le retour de la Mauritanie à un ordre constitutionnel, l’absence de structure locale de formation de journalistes, l’accès difficile et le nombre réduit de formations à l’étranger ont constitué jusqu’ici des obstacles à une formation adaptée aux besoins des professionnels des médias. L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration, créée en 1966 pour former les hauts fonctionnaires de l’Etat mauritanien, s’est ainsi vu confier la mission de créer un institut de journalisme. Depuis fin mars 2010...

Liberia experienced a civil war which spanned fourteen years. Peace was brokered in 2003 and in 2005 an elected Government was installed. Since then a proliferation of print and electronic media institutions have developed in the capital Monrovia and other parts of the Country. Currently, there are more than thirty FM radio stations in Monrovia and about forty community radio stations strewn all over Liberia. There are five television stations and over twenty-five newspapers. The national broadcaster, Liberia Broadcasting System, which transmitted radio and television programs nationally...

In 52 years of post-independence Nigeria, the military establishment has ruled for 29 years while civilians have ruled for 23 years out of which only last 13 years were uninterrupted by military coup detat. The long rule of the military has affected the psyche of Nigerian rulers, even the civilians, who see closure of media houses, threat of withdrawal of broadcast licences, arrest of journalists and general impunity against the press as instrument of governance.

The above chronicle of events gives credence to the fact that the safety of journalists in Nigeria is not safeguarded...

Based on a number of informal meetings and discussions with lecturers and students of journalism schools as well as with media practitioners and through direct observations, a clear need has emerged to strengthen and improve the quality of journalism in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. One of the entry points that can be used for this effort is journalism education, especially through the development of curricula to make it competency-based and up-to-date with new trends and challenges taking place in recent times.

Within the above context, UNESCO's Tehran Cluster Office planned...

In the Dominican Republic freedom of expression, press freedom and other related media issues are protected by different laws. There are many traditional and new media outlets for such a small country (and a Small Island Development State) but ownership of media is highly concentrated within a few privileged politic and economic powerful groups. This limits the diversity of media content and confines the views and topics covered by media to private interests. In 2010, the former Dominican President, Leonel Fernández, formed a national commission that prepared 5 law projects to reform or...

The Curaçao media landscape can best be described as rich. It is rich in the sense that there is an overwhelming amount of media for such a small island. Two daily newspapers La Prensa and Amigoe are most popular. There is a government run television station TeleCuraçao which provides information and entertainment. Three radio stations Radio Hoyer, Easy FM and Dolfijn FM serves the island country with its coverage. Social media and citizens’ media are quite active and vibrant in the country and provide much needed boost in democratic participation of the citizens. However, there is an...