Media and Accountability

Promoting Access to Information through Media Development

The development of independent, legally protected, professionally managed, and economically viable news media is essential to social, political and economic progress. It is a society's most promising tool for providing citizens the information they need to bring about and sustain government reform.

The effectiveness of the media, in turn, depends on access to information and freedom of expression, as well as a professional and ethical cadre of investigative journalists.

In response, UNDP in partnership with Siam Cement Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers organizes three training workshops this year in Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia for journalists across Asia on balanced reporting and media as a tool for public accountability. The idea is to provide hands on skills training to a core group of reporters, combined with substantive information and knowledge sessions on Asia’s key governance challenges with particular emphasis on anti-corruption.