2007 Activities
As part of its mission to defend and advance media freedom across the globe, the Media Program supported efforts to overcome attacks on freedom of the press by helping train lawyers to defend journalists and media organizations and submit cases to international tribunals. The program collaborated with the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Soros foundations to establish media lawyers’ networks in Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Ukraine.
The Media Program also supported numerous individual cases. In the Philippines, the program provided support to a class action suit by journalists and media organizations against the secretary of justice and senior police officials for their illegal detention in attempting to cover up an alleged coup attempt. The program and its partners brought together a coalition of NGOs and media organizations to submit an amicus brief in the H.M. Suharto v. TIME Inc. Asia et al. defamation case in the Indonesian Supreme Court, which concerned a $128.59 million award against Time Asia for a story detailing former President Suharto’s financial interests.
In South Africa, the Freedom of Expression Institute, a legal NGO supported by the program, challenged government efforts to try in secret two individuals for smuggling nuclear materials, by restraining media coverage of the court proceedings; the court’s ruling became South Africa’s first major legal precedent in favor of the public’s right to know through the media and reinforced the concept of open justice.
The Media Program supported press freedom monitoring and advocacy by funding groups such as the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), a network of 80 press freedom organizations. IFEX campaigns highlighted the deterioration of press freedom in countries such as Burma, Gambia, and Tunisia. To increase collaborative monitoring and advocacy efforts, the program convened a meeting that brought international press freedom organizations together with practitioners and advocates from organizations across Latin America. The meeting has led to progress on more coordinated monitoring efforts between many of the groups present and joint efforts in advocacy for freedom of expression.
To help develop and strengthen national independent media networks, the program assisted organizations like Pajhwok Afghan News, a national news and photography agency in Afghanistan that provides daily coverage of efforts to rebuild the country amidst ongoing conflict. In Nepal, Communications Corner, a media venture supported by the program, used the Internet to link local radio stations across the country in the lead-up to the 2008 elections. In Peru, the broadcasting service Red TV worked to democratize and decentralize public information by building a national network of local TV stations. The Media Program also strengthened an independent national TV and radio network in Moldova.
Because investigative journalism plays a key role in keeping the public informed and powerful economic and political players accountable, the program supported international conferences and exchanges for investigative journalists and investigative journalism networks and organizations in Brazil, Chile, the Philippines, and South Eastern Europe.
The Media Program sought to influence European attitudes toward Roma by continuing its support to a coproduction fund for Roma and non-Roma journalists to jointly produce stories for mainstream and Roma radio and TV stations. In Africa, the program engaged in media donor and aid policy in Africa, working to ensure African inclusion and leadership in key European and U.S. media policy and donor initiatives, and encouraging international support for an Africa-driven media development agenda.
Television Across Europe, a 2005 report analyzing Europe’s public service broadcasting produced by the Media Program and EUMAP, continued to influence EU debates and policies, including amendments to Italy’s 2007 media legislation.