Comparing Media Reforms
The two-day trans-regional meeting in Ljubljana (November 2012) hosted 25 experts from all over the world. It aimed at peer exchange of knowledge and at critical reflection, evaluation and comparison of key elements of media system transformation within the process of democratic development after the break of authoritarian regimes or in other circumstances which systematically hamper democracy and citizens’ rights to communication and information.
The pressing need for such exchange arose from the crisis in democratic media development in the post-socialist countries of the South East Europe (in the region where the meeting took place) 20 years after the beginning of media system transformation. It requested critical reflection and comparison with past or ongoing media reforms in other regions. The meeting also served as an encouragement for further engagement of media experts and activists from different regions in media policy development and advocacy aimed at building, consolidating and advancing democratic media systems on national, regional and global level. It also challenged existing theoretical framework for media system comparisons and supported theoretical re-assessment in comparative studies of media systems.