This session brings together a broad range of different experts from the field of media and media development from various Asian countries. The idea is to facilitate a mutli-stakeholder dialogue on the role media play in Asia’s societies, the problems media face and create as well as possible solutions for these challenges. The interplay between the governance environment and the media sector has long been recognized. In this session, the participants look at negative and positive dynamics between the media sector and the wider political, economic, and cultural context. The questions are: Which strategies in media development are needed to tackle the problems in the different countries and regions of the continent? How can the international development community in general and, more specifically, media development organizations and their partners respond to related challenges?
This session builds on a global consultation process initiated in 2015 by DW Akademie and the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) under the title “Media Development and the Governance Debate: Reframing the agenda”. This process has included consultations in Bonn, Washington and Bogotá so far – and has involved numerous institutional partners, in particular in Latin America. In Jakarta, new publications from this broader initiative will be presented.
In the exchanges challenges, needs and possibilities for further action are identified. In order to be able to achieve concrete results the session is limited to 20-25 participants from Asia which will be invited individually. The results of this half-day workshop will be presented in a panel discussion open to all participants of the conference (see session 2, on the next day).
Rapporteur for the session: Paul Rothman, Assistant Partnerships Officer, Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
