IMS Annual Report 2014
Our 2014 Annual Report highlights work done by our partners and us to enable media to contribute towards peace, stability and democratic development in some of the most hostile environments in the world.
Throughout the year, we saw a pushback against democratic development gathering pace with governments around the world adopting an increasingly hostile approach to democracy and human rights work by introducing restrictive laws and other repressive measures.
There were pockets of encouraging development as well — areas where democratic progress and societies based on the rule of law are gradually evolving and creating some space for freedom of expression. In Tunisia, we saw peaceful elections and continued work to push forward on media law reform. Myanmar continued to take positive strides in its democratic reform process, albeit also with some worrying steps backwards.
In 2014, 61 journalists were killed, regretfully including close partners of IMS. The situation is serious and makes support for independent media more important than ever. We need to persist and continue to identify new opportunities, find room to manoeuvre in support of independent media within these closing spaces for media freedom and help open doors from within.
