Media

Without losing sight of the importance of Civil and Political Rights, a focus on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can be more impactful in certain restricting contexts, and pave the way (e.g., with “transitional” authorities) for the advocacy of a wider spectrum of human rights when circumstances allow.

Project activity costs can be reduced through close coordination, mutual trust and regular consultation with key implementing partners that can lead to financial burden sharing and increased buy-in. This project, for example, reduced costs by persuading implementing partners to share some of the financial burden for certain events, when co-hosting.

Sensitivity to local languages should be an essential part of project design and delivery in countries where such diversity exists (as was the case with this project in the use of Bambara for local radio broadcasting to maximise impact for non-French speaking listeners), though this may bring additional challenges in terms of measuring and evaluating the success of an intervention.

It is widely accepted that local community radios continue to be the medium most established and most used and trusted (for news and information) by people in Mali and other countries in the Central Sahel region – especially in remote areas where access to print media and television is more limited. However, the use and influence of social media is already significant and is expected to grow – and should be part of any context-setting, if not the subject of direct activity, in future projects supporting the media sector.

The project applied a “three-pronged approach” (involving the participation of government institutions (state services), media, and CSOs) which proved to be highly effective in breaking down barriers, forming new networks, and improving access to human rights and essential services in a highly unstable environment.

As digital technologies take hold, two ways media-community audience engagement will only become richer and more complex. New technology can upset the methodology and content of any capacity-building programme approved and designed by the grantee. Therefore, there is a need to remain alert about new technology and devise innovative forms of audience research online and offline.

In a country like Bhutan, where culture is overwhelmingly dominant in every aspect of life and policies and seen separately from democracy, implementing a project that promotes democracy through strengthening media is not without challenges. Bhutan is ambitious to make the cultural perspective visible in all development co-operation and projects, which suggests a "mainstreaming" approach. Since culture is a complex concept and naturally varies considerably from country to country, mainstreaming is difficult. But, at the project level, it would be more appropriate to address culture using a rights perspective that focuses on freedom of expression and information. Nevertheless, it would be highly relevant to systematically include the roles of culture in media development and the promotion of democracy and democratic institutions.

Mentoring as a model for capacity building has worked. It was found during the interviews that most of the trainees had learned techniques and applied new skills in reporting and engaging with audiences. After the trainings, the Mentors therefore continued to guide and teach the participants on subjects not covered during the trainings like techniques of editing and content packaging, self-censorship and other technical and editorial skills.

Both mentors and participants demonstrated that knowledge sharing works vertically and horizontally in- and outside the media organisations, mainly in four ways.
• One, most of the participants shared their knowledge and experience by training the co-workers;
• Two, they shared their knowledge with other media professionals through a variety of interactive as well as informal forums;
• Three, participants took opportunities to share their knowledge with students in media training institutes;
• Four, participants also shared their knowledge and experiences through a variety of media, most commonly by writing blogs, articles for professional journals.

Community media is key in Kyrgyzstan, given the geographic challenges of rural communities in remote and mountainous locations, where regional news do not reach the country as a whole, and vice versa. Alternative channels of access to information complement national and regional information. It is thus key in advancing gender justice through gender-sensitive information and conscious opposition to gender stereotypes.