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…)

The 2007 WIA Report analyzed the websites of political parties in over 50 Muslim countries. An overwhelming number of the political parties online were secular and represented the diverse ideological spectrum of political parties found in many other countries around the world. This year the sample includes 74 nations with significant Muslim populations. Political parties are assessed for the volume of content they have online and how internally complex they are. (more…)

Unfortunately, one way to assess the political importance of blogging around the world is through the growing number of blogger arrests. Since 2003, 64 citizens unaffiliated with news organizations have been arrested for their blogging activities. (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…)

Political life in Muslim countries is surprisingly wired. In 2000, fewer than 50 political parties from Muslim countries had Web sites. By 2007, there were more than 200 parties online, the majority of them secular. The expansion of politics online in the Muslim world is out-pacing that of the rest of the developing world. (more…)