Motives, Objectives and Implementation Strategies of International Actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo

Independent media are considered key for democracy, conflict prevention and human rights. Media assistance, understood as any activity in support of local media by international actors, is therefore a vital instrument of international democratization policy. In the former Yugoslavia it has achieved its highest visibility, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, where external actors function as de facto protectorate powers. Media assistance receives sizeable resources; external actors influence the media situation by drafting laws, funding specific institutions, and training journalists.

The project’s key question concerns the specific interests of external media assistance actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. What strategies and what media concepts do they follow with their activity? This PhD project aims at identifying the driving factors for external media assistance and providing basic data for impact assessment of media assistance efforts. It is a contribution to the larger context of the research on security building through democratization by external actors.