The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) and the National Endowment for Democracy just announced the launch of The Media Law Assistance Website. CIMA describes the new site as filling a gap by providing information on international media laws as well as a forum to discuss the prmotion of press freedom.

CIMA’s Press Release:

In May 2007, the Center for International Media Assistance held a working group on establishing a legal enabling environment for free and independent media to flourish. Among the group’s findings was that there is a great need for a globally accessible media law assistance Web site containing information and resources on media law. Such a site should serve as a source of both information and analysis through seminal texts, legislation, and court decisions on media law. Additionally, the site should foster dialogue and greater cooperation among practitioners.

Subsequently, CIMA organized a series of conference calls with participants from the 2007 working group and other media law experts. Based on input from the calls and focus groups, the Center for Global Communication Studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication took the lead in designing and administering the Web site. The Center is working in collaboration with the Howard M. Squadron Program at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The Media Law Assistance Website, or MLAW, is the end result.

CIMA is pleased to be able to forward the result to you. Below is a message from CGCS and Cardozo on its launch of MLAW.

Welcome to http://www.globalmedialaw.com : The Media Law Assistance Website!

We invite you to:

Sign up and participate in our forum. The Media Law Assistance Forum is an online community where you can join media lawyers, journalists, and academics from around the world discussing all things related to media law. Here you may post practitioner requests, ask questions, network with one another, post relevant information, and debate issues. As a registered member you will be able to:

-Participate actively in forum discussions and browse through board posts

-Communicate privately via (PM) with other members.

-Create an online profile and network with media practitioners worldwide.

Read and comment on our regularly updated news blog. Scrolling down the right hand side of this page you will be able to reference blog news by region and country categories as well as various tags. Further down the right hand side is an ever-growing list of relevant websites and globalmedialaw.com partners. This list is further organized into categories such as our affiliates, journalist organizations, etc. There is also an RSS feed to our affiliate site http://www.article19.org. In order to comment on our blog click “register” on the bottom right of the homepage or register here. If you would like to contribute to the blog, please email katya@globalmedialaw.com to set up an account.

Browse our library. The Library is a special edited section of globalmedialaw.com that maintains an index of documents, forms, guides, briefs, case law, books, and other publications related to media law across a wide range of regions and topics. This section is being updated continuously and we welcome content suggestions.

We look forward to working with you to ensure the growth and success of this site. If you have any questions/comments or need technical assistance, feel free to contact us.

Katya Fisher Yoffe

katya@globalmedialaw.com

www.globalmedialaw.com