With a majority of the world’s population denied access to free media, the new U.S. administration should ensure that independent media is no longer the poor relation of international development. So argues Marguerite H. Sullivan, senior director of the Center for International Media Assistance. Less than 20 per cent of people enjoy access to wholly unfettered media, according to Freedom House’s annual survey of press freedom.
The Obama administration should promote distinct media development programs within the State Department and USAID – with improved funding and staffing – to take advantage of the potential offered by new communications technologies:
The immediate beneficiaries of more free and independent media would be billions of people around the world who, with greater access to better information, could someday see repression diminish, corruption lessen, incomes increase, health care improve, authorities listen.
Recent Comments