Building a solid foundation for media in the Middle East and North Africa

After three years of political transitions, media across the Middle East and North Africa are still left with the immense challenge of reforming past institutions, laws, and minds. But what does it take to build the solid foundations that enable journalists to provide citizens with high-quality news and information?

In a series of three essays, three leading media experts reflect on some of the key challenges in making sure that media across the region are underpinned by the sound structures needed to support professional, independent journalism.

The first essay by Toby Mendel (PDF), Executive Director of Centre for Law and Democracy, looks at the legal regulation of the media, including media content restrictions; how to increase the safety of journalists; and the structural regulation of the media.

The second essay by Yavuz Baydar (PDF), journalist and co-founder of the media NGO, P24, focuses on the journalist community’s responsibility to abide by ethical standards and perform according to professional codes of conduct, and to institutionalise these professional practices in daily journalistic work to push back against political and economic powers that seek to influence the media.

Finally, Kamel Labidi’s essay (PDF), journalist and former Chair of Tunisia’s principal institution for media sector reform, reflects on the past three years in Tunisia, where both encouraging progress and a lack of political will have had significant impact on a media reform process that has yet to succeed.

Download all three essays in English and Arabic here.

The essays follow from a meeting convened by International Media Support (IMS) and the Morocco-based Forum des Alternatives Maroc in late 2013. Here a group of legal experts, human rights defenders, and academics met to take the next step in reforming the media sectors in several of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa.