#Media Matters: GFMD World Conference Brazil 2012
# Media Matters: Media Development in a Changed World of Information
3rd World Conference of the Global Forum for Media Development
Brasilia, Brazil, September 25-28, 2012
Outline
The conference will bring some 500 media development practitioners, high-level donor and media representatives, journalists, editors, media experts and researchers from around the world.
The conference is the only global event that addresses media development directly and in a comprehensive manner. It is the place where all groups involved in media development meet and agree strategies for cooperation. It is the event where all the different strands of discussion about media development come together.
The GFMD 3rd World Conference focuses on why media matters to building democratic societies, good governance, human and economic development. Around the world, digital media technologies are revolutionizing the production and dissemination of news. Digital technologies are expanding information flows and allowing new players to enter the field. And they are posing a challenge to the old business model and at the same time representing news ways to generate income and news ways for citizens to access information and to engage in public debate. The conference will examine new media trends and how they are redefining the field of media development.
Case studies will review how media matters to different issues of development policies. The focus of the conference is to show the impact of media development work, to celebrate the success of media assistance programmes, to analyse failures and to develop new and better-targeted strategies of support.
The aim of the conference is to define new and more targeted strategies of media development aimed at building free, independent and pluralistic media that serve the information and communication needs of the public. With the use of new technologies, increase of the internet information space, social media and pressures on traditional media and market models, media development needs to redefine its strategies.
The GFMD has the global network, especially through its members in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Eurasia, the Middle East, to develop new ideas for promoting media freedom, professional journalism and inclusive media landscapes.
Background – The GFMD
Mission
It is the mission of the GFMD to make media development an integral part of overall development strategies, just like education or health. Too often, media assistance is relegated to communicating development goals and the GFMD aims to make media assistance a sector in its own right especially in light of the important contribution free and independent media make to promoting economic and human development, good governance and democracy.
The GFMD’s basic values are free expression, media freedom and independent journalism as defined by the UNESCO Windhoek, Santiago, Almaty, Sana’a and Sofia Declarations on Pluralistic and Independent Media. The GFMD believes that free, independent, viable and inclusive media are prerequisites for creating and strengthening democratic society and human development.
Global Network of Media Assistance Organisations
While there is cooperation between some media development organisations, the GFMD is the only global network that brings together not only the large Northern-based groups but also regional, national and local media assistance organisations in the development and less developed countries.
The GFMD is the only network that focuses on highlighting the importance of free, independent and viable media to human and economic development. While there are groups that focus on the role of communication in achieving development goals, the GFMD is the only group that is set up to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence of the positive impact of free media systems on democracy and development.
The GFMD, through the project work of its members, focuses on creating and strengthening free and democratic media cultures as the base for democratic development. It is therefore uniquely placed to provide a much-needed framework for media development debates and common strategies.
Sustainability
The GFMD can overcome the danger of a conference or forum reaching interesting results that are not put into practice and that cannot be sustained. GFMD is a sustainable structure based on its membership network. The conclusions of the conference will form the work plan of the GFMD and will continue to be implemented well after the conference. Strategies adopted will be used by GFMD for advocacy and as reference by donors or policy makers.
Partners and Funding
The GFMD is a collaborative process and with more than 500 media assistance organisations world wide in its network, the GFMD has partners in more than 100 countries, who will be involved in shaping the conference. The main partner in Brazil is ANDI, a member of the GFMD Steering Committee.
In Brazil, the Ministry of Communication is the GFMD’s partner in hosting the conference, UNESCO Brazil is closely involved in the planning of the event. At international level, several governments and foundations are pledging support to the conference including the Omidyar Network, the Open Society Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Center for Independent Media Assistance, The US Institute for Peace, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, the Danish Foreign Ministry, NORAD, the Swedish International Development Agency. The GFMD is also discussing involvement with UN agencies in Brazil including the UNDP, UN Women, UN Alliance of Civilisations, UNICEF.
Main Themes
The main focus of the conference is the effect new media, mobile technology and new players in the media scene have on media development strategies. This theme will be further defined in panel discussion and workshop sessions:
• Innovation and technology: Making them work for media development;
• Holding governments to account: role of media in good governance;
• The role of emerging markets: Media investment and media development opportunities – Focus on Brazil;
• Media Matters: Impact of media development on other development sectors (health, elections, disaster response etc);
• Building Coalitions for Media Development (Case Study Africa with AMI);
• Media, the new information environment and rights: effects on the rights of children, of women and of minorities;
• When things go wrong – in media support, on the internet, the threat of censorship (in partnership with International Freedom of Expression exchange);
• Media and Conflict: Lessons learnt and new strategies (in partnership with US Institute of Peace);
• Safety First: Journalists’ Safety in Media Development (in partnership with International News Safety Institute (INSI), launch of INSI Brazil, (ABRAJI)
The advantage of the GFMD global network is that it can draw on media development expertise from around the world. In addition to the main themes, a wide range of issues media professionals and media development practitioners face in their daily work will be addressed in workshops and panel discussions.
We are building further partnerships with other organisations active in defence of press freedom, development actors, donors and foundations, some of whom have already agreed to be partners in specific sessions.
Main Speakers
The 3rd World Conference will feature high-level speakers from the world of media, politics and media development that will draw important media interest.
The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff will be invited to open the conference.
The Minister of Communication, Paulo Bernado will be invited to address the question of media policy and regulation in a changed information environment.
José Roberto Marinho, one of the owners of Rede Globo will speak to issues of social corporate responsibility.
Golden Globe Award winner Geena Davies, Founder of the Geena Davies Institute on Gender in Media will be invited to give a keynote address.
Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature Orhan Pamuk and Mario Vargas Llosa will be asked to present their reflections to the conference.
Eminent author Paul Collier, Professor of Economics at Oxford University, who addressed the 2nd GFMD World Conference, will review trends in the development field and the impact of media.
Key players in the world of media innovation will address the conference, including:
• Wael Ghonim, head of Google, Egypt
• Ariana Huffington, Founder of Huffington Post, USA
• Rosenthal Calmon Alves, Professor of journalism, Knight Chair in Journalism and the UNESCO Chair in Communication at the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin.
• Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, Belarus;
• David Kobia, co-founder of Ushahidi, South Africa
Important representatives of the world of media will include:
• Waddah Khanfar, former Chairman of Al Jazeera Television, Qatar
• Tom Curley, President and CEO, Associated Press, USA
• William Bonner, anchor and editor of Jornal Nacional, Brazil
• Chris Cramer, head of innovlation, Thomson Reuters, US and UK
• Friede Springer, Deputy Chairperson, Axel Springer Verlag, Germany
High-level representatives from international institutions dealing with media development will include:
• Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women
• Irina Bokova, Director General, UNESCO
• Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression
• Catalina Botero Marino, Specifal Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, InterAmerican Commision on Human Rights,
• Dunja Mijatovic, Representative on Freedom of the Media, OSCE
• Faith Pansy Tlakula, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa
• Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe, France
• Sina Ogudbemi, CommGap, the World Bank.
Key players in the world of media development will address the conference, including:
• Melinda Gates, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Stephen King, Omidyar Network, United Kingdom
• Alec Ross, US State Department, USA
• Nazeer Ladhani, Aga Khan Foundation, Kenya
• Sasa Vucinic, co-founder, Media Development Loan Fund
In addition to these speakers there will be a wide range of experts on media development, innovation, media policy and regulation addressing the event.
On-Going Initiatives
• The Global Reporting Initiative: The GRI is a network-based organisation that has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used reporting framework to assess companies’ performance in sustainability development. The GRI, which is the collaborating centre of the UN Environment Programme and works closely with the UN Compact, is currently working on specific indicators and guidelines for sustainable development in media.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: The OECD is currently working on guidelines to improve aid effectiveness and the media is addressed within the issue of good governance and domestic accountability. The GFMD can bring together all they key players that have been involved in the gov-net and aid effectiveness process going beyond the existing group of organisations and countries and bringing forward the conclusions of the Busan meeting that will take place at the end of 2011.
• Measuring Media Development Impact: This project, organised by the World Bank Institute/Brookings Institute/Internews and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is developing a database on media and other development indicators and looks at if and how positive developments in the media environment improve other development areas such as good governance, gender equality, health etc.
• Framework of Measuring Media Development: The GFMD has developed a toolkit for assessing media landscapes that can be used by local media assistance NGOs, this work is based on the IREX MSI and links to the UNESCO framework of indicators of media development. It provides local media assistance NGOs with a tool to do a media landscape assessment including outside factors such as political and economic environment in order to develop targeted base lines and project programmes. Case studies can be presented at the conference.
• Media development research: the GFMD together with the Center for International Media Assistance and the International Center for Journalists is establishing a network of media development researchers and a database of existing studies will allow for identifying areas of further research at the conference.
Conference Themes
Alongside the main theme, the conference will address other key issues of media development in workshop sessions, including:
Innovation: Mobile Technology and Media Development
• Creative digital innovation – Open Society Institute study on digital media and other studies;
• Workshop on digital technology for media development groups;
• Media innovation in the developing world: Examples of success;
• Using mobile phones for media development;
• Digital media: how do you make it? How do you break it?
New Journalism, New Ways to Engage with Society, New Media Markets:
• Media markets – successful business models, strategies for emerging markets;
• Quality journalism on all platforms: standards and self-regulation;
• Covering the Issues: good governance, inequality, poverty, sustainability, public budget;
• Exploding media/thriving media in middle income countries;
• New media, what changes for key rights: new ways to promote a fair portrayal of women?
• New Media, what changes for the rights of children?
• Social corporate responsibility – Global Reporting Initiative.
Key Issues for Media Development:
• Safety of journalists: Case studies of success;
• Media Development and Human Rights;
• Internet censorship;
• Media development and good governance;
• Media literacy;
• Community radio;
• Exile media;
• Importance of civil society engagement to media development;
• Media development in disaster areas.
Reviewing the Media Development Field:
• Studying media development: Special session of media researchers;
• Post-conflict/ non-conflict countries (invisible) countries – how to ensure sustained support for media development;
• Funding for targeted reporting (media for development);
• Assessing Media Landscapes: UNESCO framework of Indicators, Media Sustainability Index, GFMD toolkit;
• Evidence of impact of media development – studies by Brookings Institute/World Bank Institute/Internews and others;
• Promises: commitment by donors and actual support to media development;
• Embracing and involving new actors in the media development field;
• Media development 2020: Where is the field going;
• Media Monitoring tools;
Regional sessions defining priorities for Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eurasia, Middle East/North Africa.
GFMD members receive regular up-dates about the conference. We will launch the separate conference web-site in January 2012.
For more information contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)