• Vietnam Bloggers Battle Tightening Censorship
• Panos Invites Applicants For Climate Change Journalism Fellowship
• GFMD Members Celebrate World Press Freedom Day
• World Press Freedom Day
• BBC Outraged Over News Censorship Of Police Brutality In Malaysia

GFMD brochure Makes Case for Media Development

The last two decades have seen an increase in free and independent media in many parts of the world, that give hundreds of millions of people access to fresh and relevant information sources. Policy makers will freely admit that media play a key role in democratic development, but the lack of an identifiable sector means that media development programmes have not reached their full potential. Poor coordination within the media assistance community, the lack of recognition of media in reaching development goals and inadequate involvement of local players have resulted in lost opportunities in media development work. The GFMD aims to change that. In 2008 it has brought together more than 350 media development practitioners in regional forums in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Middle East/North Africa and Latin America. On December 7-10, 2008 the 2nd Global Forum for Media Development bringing together some 400 media NGOs from over 120 countries, media experts, donors and policy makers will mark the launch of the GFMD as a membership network and its Global Campaign for Putting Media Freedom at the Heart of Development. Read the brochure.