Media Constrained by Context: International Assistance and the Transition to Democratic Media in the Western Balkans

This books draws a comparative balance of twenty years' international media assistance in the five countries of the Western Balkans. The central question was what happens to imported models when they are transposed onto the newly evolving media systems of transitional societies. Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia undertook a range of media reforms to conform with accession requirements of the European Union and the standards of the Council of Europe, among others. The essays explore the nexus between the democratic transformation of the media and international media assistance. The cross-national analysis concludes that the effects of international assistance are highly constrained by the local context. From today's vantage point it becomes obvious, that scaling media assistance does not necessarily improve outcomes. The experiences in the region suggest that imported solutions have not been very cognitive in all aspects of local conditions but international strategies tent to be rather schematic and lacked strategic approaches to promote media policy stability, credible media reform and implementation. The book offers valuable insights into the nature and effects of media assistance and the strategies deployed by international aid agencies, local political forces, media professionals, civil society organizations and other actors.

Tarik Jusic is Lecturer and Guarantor of the study program at the School of Communication and Media, University of New York in Prague, Czech Republic.

Kristina Irion is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam. She coordinates and teaches in the Research Master’s Information Law and is the faculty organizer of the Annual IViR Summer Course on Privacy Law and Policy. She is Associate Professorat the School of Public Policy at Central European University in Budapest (Hungary).