Natural disaster zones present particular challenges and opportunities in information and communications support to affected communities. Adnan Rehmat of Intermedia explores this issue through a case study of the 2005 South Asia earthquake. In this study he shows how emergency media assistance in the previously state-controlled information environment of the Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province aided relief effectiveness, by generating higher performances in government responsiveness and opened up the public sphere to a diversity of voices. However, he also warns how short-term donor funding horizons combined with government closure of emergency FM broadcasters have undermined the proliferation of moderate voices, at a time when intolerance is re-emerging in the earthquake zones. II. Regional Trends Media Matters commissioned five regional experts to profile the media assistance landscapes in Africa, the Eurasia, Latin America, the Middle East, and South East Asia. Although hugely diverse regions within themselves with highly uneven levels of press freedoms, the following key shared trends emerge from their analyses:
• Media independence is being undermined by a potent combination of economic and
MEDIA MATTERS : Overview
legislative measures. Kavi Chongkittavorn of the Nation newspaper and the South East Asia Press Alliance relates how Thailand’s most respected Thai language newspaper has faced numerous hostile take-over bids. Likewise, Manana Aslamazyan, Internews Russia, relates how the authors of the Russian media law written at the start of the transition period in 1990 were unable to see what protections independent media currently needs from the economic pressures - monopolisation of ownership, taxes and buy-outs, for instance - that the government is applying directly or via proxies to consolidate state control.
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