WIA Report

Across the 15 largest Muslim media systems, ownership patterns vary in interesting ways. In many Western countries, there is less and less diversity in the ownership of media assets because these assets are being concentrated among fewer and fewer corporate actors. In some Muslim countries, media assets are also concentrated, but among state actors such as ministries of communications, government secretariats, or publically traded companies in which state agencies still hold controlling shares. In other Muslim countries, there is modest competition among the state and private owners of television stations, radio stations, mobile phone service providers, newspapers, and internet service providers. (more…)

Almost every city in the world offers cyber cafés or other commercial Internet
access, but they cost average people in a developing city two times as much of their daily income as average residents in a developed city.

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In many parts of the world, the best developed information infrastructure is
supported by libraries. A country’s national library typically houses information on legislation, historical archives, patents and sometimes court and tax records. University libraries store information on research and are often a gateway to international information services. But not all library portals are created equal. (more…)

While many governments are working to improve their information infrastructure, a significant number of governments throughout the world do not have the capacity to host their own websites. A third of all countries maintain websites with commercial hosting services in the United States. One-quarter of all countries maintain government websites on servers in other countries. (more…)

For several decades, international lending agencies have encouraged African governments to reform their telecommunications sector by privatizing the public telephone services, separating and depoliticizing the agencies that regulate the telecommunications sector and opening up competition in the consumer market for telecommunications services. During this period, Africa’s share of the world’s internet hosts and secure servers has declined. (more…)

A decade into the information society, computing and communication technologies should be dispersed among a large number of countries in the world. But key computing and communication technologies are actually more concentrated in fewer countries, not more diffused across many countries. (more…)