Our guest in this episode is Dr. Richard Harris (Ph.D.), who, born in London (UK), is a tenured professor in the School of Management at Chukyo University, Japan, where he has lived for 42 years. He speaks of the difference between cultural relativism and relativity, but most of all he shares his passion for the discovery of different cultures and advocates for friendship as the best entry into a new culture. 

Dr. Harris teaches Intercultural Communication and Intercultural Management (in Japanese) at undergraduate and graduate levels and travels extensively out of personal and professional curiosity. Richard’s eclectic research interests range from the influence of physical and psychological space on intercultural encounters to the representation of ourselves and the other in media, museums, tourism and interpersonal interaction. He has presented at dozens of conferences around the world, and written many papers on the cultural impact of space, on the representation of cultures in Southeast Asian museums, and is the author of Paradise: A Cultural Guide, a study of cross-cultural concepts of the ideal.

Richard Harris – Making Friends (26 min)

In this episode, Media4Democracy talks to Caoilfhionn Gallagher QC about the increasingly complex threats journalists face because of their work and the legal tactics governments are using to silence journalists. Drawing on several prominent recent legal cases, she highlights how she and her colleagues are working together to step up legal protections for journalists to hold governments to account for crimes against journalist and fight back against the culture of impunity in many countries.

Topics
• Crimes against journalists
• Legal threats to journalists
• Lawfare
• Defending journalists
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights judgement on Colombia
• Daphne Caruana Galizia
• Maria Ressa
• Judith Bedoyo Lima

Links 
• International Media Defence Panel: https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/international-media-defence
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights: https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_431_ing.pdf

The Media4Democracy podcast - Season 1 - Episode 2 - Caoilfhionn Gallagher

Media4Democracy talks to Guilherme Canela from his unique global perspective as UNESCO’s chief of section of Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists at their headquarters in Paris. He talks about how the wide range of financial, technological, legal and political threats to independent media combine to create the perfect storm, but he also remains optimistic that stronger multi-stakeholder action and data-driven policy can help media weather the storm and play a vital role in upholding democracy and provide citizens with independent news and information.

Topics
- Journalist safety
- Disinformation
- Regressive legislation
- Freedom of Expression
- Access to Information
- Independent Media Viability
- Impact of COVID on independent media

Links
- UN Action Plan on Safety of Journalists and Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists: https://en.unesco.org/un-plan-action-safety-journalists
- UNESCO’s flagship Judges Initiative: https://en.unesco.org/training-foe

The Media4Democracy podcast - Season 1 - Episode 3 -  Guilherme Canela

In this episode, Media4Democracy talks to David Kaye, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression where he set the agenda in debates about the role that powerful tech companies and social media platforms should play in promoting and protecting freedom of expression, and the need for governments to do more politically and financially to protect media independence in the digital age.

Topics:
- Business and Human Rights
- Internet Governance
- Online content regulation and self-regulation
- Government transparency in online content governance
- Tech platform transparency in online content governance
- Social Media Councils

Links mentioned in this episode:
- UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf
- Article19 Social Media Council: https://www.article19.org/social-media-councils/
- Oversight Board (Facebook): https://share.zencast.fm/embed/podcast/www.oversightboard.com

The Media4Democracy podcast - Season 1 - Episode 4 - David Kaye

Media4Democracy talks to Marius Dragomir, Director of the Center for Media, Data and Society at the Central European University to understand the growing phenomenon of media capture in the 21st century. He explains why and how governments capture media to gain political power and win elections. Marius highlights the important role the international community – including the EU – can play at this critical moment in addressing media capture to protect media independence, and the role of global tech companies in protecting spaces for independent, public interest journalism.

Topics:
• Media Capture
• Elections
• Regulatory Capture
• Public media capture
• Private media capture
• Control of state advertising budgets
• Oligarchs
• Independent Media

Links mentioned in this episode:
• Centre of Media Data and Society: https://cmds.ceu.edu/

The Media4Democracy podcast - Season 1 - Episode 5 - Marius Dragomir

Media4Democracy talks to Professor Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director of the Reuters Institute for Journalism at the University of Oxford, where he leads research into the changing nature of the news industry. Rasmus explains why he thinks the best analogy for the current media crisis is the climate crisis, and discusses the recent global report – A New Deal for Journalism – which calls on governments to implement policies to protect media freedom and to support the financial sustainability of independent media.

Topics
• Sustainable media businesses
• Government policies
• Financing public interest news 
• New Deal for Journalism 
• Public media 
• Private media 
• Not-for-profit media

Links:
• A New Deal for Journalism: https://informationdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ForumID_New-Deal-for-Journalism_16Jun21.pdf
• International Fund for Public Interest Media: https://share.zencast.fm/embed/podcast/www.ifpim.org
• Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/

The Media4Democracy podcast - Season 1 - Episode 6 - Rasmus Kleis Nielsen

Join us for this episode where we meet up with Louise Mabulo, a Filipino environmentalist, farmer, social entrepreneur, and master chef.
80% of our food is produced by family farmers, meaning our continuous support will enable them to become leaders of climate solutions across the agrifood systems. Louise is the founder of The Cacao Project, a social enterprise that works with over 200 farmers in the Philippines. She shares her thoughts with us on farming as a career choice, an opportunity to provide green jobs and landscape stewardship. She’s also a chocolate expert, explaining what fair trade means to the industry and how cacao farming can happen sustainably.Louise tells us about the power of food and recipes, how cooking can galvanize entire populations, promoting the farm-to-table narrative. In addition, Louise advises how young people can get involved in ecosystem inclusive spaces.

Hosts: Jennifer Gacich (FAO) and Mateusz Benko (UNEP)
Producers: Cecilia Casalini (FAO), Giorgia Cherubini (UNEP), Katia de Prado (UNEP), Pierre Flecheux (UNEP) and James Obata (FAO).
Picture: Courtesy of Louise Mabulo

Who doesn’t love chocolate? Our conversation with a sustainable cacao farmer and activist

“I believe that being aware of differences (without falling in the trap of stereotyping and
clichés), and being able to acknowledge them as well as our own biases and assumptions
are key elements when working in an organisation like ours.”

Evangelina Blanco Gonzales is programme manager for the EU Delegation in the Gambia and our guest for this episode. She draws upon a life of cross-cultural experiences having lived and worked in many European and non-European countries, but also being part of the cultural melting pots of Brussels, Bruges, and the European Commission. She explores how her Asturian roots (Northern Spain) have led her to this path.

Evangelina Blanco Gonzales – Acknowledging difference (Part one) (15 min)

In the second part of this episode Evangelina Blanco Gonzales explains how she works with cultural differences and how delicate situations sometimes require creative solutions.

Evangelina Blanco Gonzales is programme manager for the EU Delegation in the Gambia and our guest for this episode. She draws upon a life of cross-cultural experiences having lived and worked in many European and non-European countries, but also being part of the cultural melting pots of Brussels, Bruges, and the European Commission.

Evangelina Blanco Gonzales – Acknowledging difference (Part two) (14 min)

In the first episode of the new Capacity4dev Podcast Series, the team sat down with Francine Pickup, Deputy Director of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support at UNDP, who shared insights from her field days and reflections on her work today.

Takeaways from the field: a candid interview with Francine Pickup, UNDP

In this podcast episode, we interview Thomas Eekhout, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at the Center for Evaluation and Development (C4ED). Thomas explains how rigorous data collection and analysis help improve interventions. He highlights the distinction between standard monitoring evaluations and impact evaluations and outlines the primary challenges evaluators encounter. Thomas concludes by urging international development professionals to embrace digital data and foster early, ongoing collaboration between researchers, evaluators, and implementers.

Beyond result-oriented monitoring evaluations: the case for impact evaluations

The European Commission’s online platform for international cooperation professionals. Discuss, share and collaborate globally!

Beyond result-oriented monitoring evaluations: the case for impact evaluations

Capacity4dev

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