Media
Media development action with informed and engaged societies
Media
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Media, Civil Society, Voice (and) Development?

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There are often contentious debates about the relationship between media, communication, civil society, dilague and debate, and Development Goals. I was intrigued by this IREX initiative: Trusted Voices in Challenging Times: Civil Society and Media Leadership (CSML) Program - Final Report, with this introduction from our summary - a five-and-a-half-year project was designed to contribute to building a more capable, collaborative, and agile civil society and media sector in Liberia, a country recovering from fourteen years of civil conflict. The goal of the project was to "sustain peace in Liberia through greater inclusion, giving a voice to, informing and engaging Liberian citizens." I would be very interested, from your experience and perspective, if you could please review this initiative and provide your critique. For example, does provide a possible pointer to principled media work that also has a development goal? Many thanks for engaging. 

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Submitted by jasonbrown1965 on Tue, 08/30/2016 - 18:40 Permalink

I read the summary at the link above.

Not having time to read a 100 page, I can only go on the points raised there.

My impression is that, like so many other media projects, this one proves one thing, and one thing only - when news media have the resources to do our job properly, we do our job properly.

When we don't, we don't.

But even when we do our jobs properly, as in this five and a half year project, the reaction is not always favourable. Perhaps *especially* when we do our jobs properly, see:

Liberia: The Tragedy of Liberian Media - in Defense of Press Freedom

http://allafrica.com/stories/201605061154.html

Written three months later for World Press Freedom Day, by Martin K. N. Kollie, a Liberian youth activist, his column is filled with arrests, jailings, threats and other negative reaction from authorities.

This suggests that the problem is not just at the lower levels of journalism, but also at media management level and beyond.

Certainly the extra input would have been valuable. And lessons learnt. Problem is that inputs fade and lessons  forgotten.

Just like any other venture, news media need sustained funding neutrality to successfully contribute to development, and not fall prey to vested interests.