Media & Broadcasting Policy Supports Governance Agenda: New Bank Book is a Practical Guide

Good governance and accountability depend on informed, effective citizen participation. This can’t happen without media  that provide broad access to information from varied sources and let people raise and debate issues. Sound media policies – particularly in broadcasting  – enable the public to make informed decisions, avoid manipulation, hold government to account, grasp development opportunities, and build people’s capacities to engage each other and government. That’s why these policies have to be an early component of governance reform.

“Broadcasting, Voice and Accountability: A Public Interest Approach to Policy, Law and Regulation” is the World Bank’s first publication presenting good practices from around the world in media and broadcasting policy and regulation. It complements the World Bank’s existing work in governance, public sector reform, and access to information, and carries governance and accountability work forward by looking at the conditions necessary for a thriving, diversified media sector to develop and serve the public interest. Policy makers, reform managers, development practitioners, and students alike will welcome it, as have our colleagues in CommGap in one of their recent blog entries, following the book's launch in Africa, Asia, Canada, and Washington, DC.