Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

Recommendation: Public officials should amend secrecy laws to bring them in line with international
standards. To ensure implementation, senior officials should send clear signals against undue secrecy,
such as disciplining officials and civil servants who withhold information unlawfully. The GoM, with
initial donor funding, should also provide ongoing training for both civil servants and politicians on the
negative effects of secrecy and the benefits of open government to socioeconomic development.
Finding MEDIA 6. Defamation laws unduly restrict freedom of expression and exert a chilling effect on
media reporting.
Recommendations:
1) In collaboration with other stakeholders, public officials should comprehensively review and
reform the criminal and civil defamation regimes to bring them in line with international
standards. At a minimum, the provision of imprisonment for defamation should be removed.
International donor agencies, INGOs, and interested CSOs with an expertise on defamation laws
should actively advocate for these changes by, for example, providing comparative materials on
defamation laws in other countries.
2) Given the norms that have developed under the current defamation regime, stakeholders need to
undertake explicit actions to ensure the implementation of reforms to the legal code. With
technical and financial support from media-related CSOs and the donor community, they must
revise the legal text and provide training on its implications for both journalists and the judiciary.
Finding MEDIA 7. The poor quality of media output in Mongolia is a product of inadequate funding and
the related phenomenon of self-censorship, which threaten both freedom of expression and the public’s
right to diverse and reliable information.
Recommendations:
1) Media-related CSOs, public officials, and media representatives should have a broad social
consultation to analyze the factors that influence the quality of media reporting, such as the
politicization of the media, funding constraints, weak ethical or professional norms, and the
concentration of media ownership. They may also consider possible actions to enhance incentives
to improve quality and reliability. Special consideration should be given to the establishment of a
media council that offers country-specific recommendations to address the problem of poor media
reporting.
2) There should be additional training for media workers, including editors and owners, that focuses
not only on promoting professional reporting, but also on enhancing the financial viability of
media outlets by promoting efficiency and fundraising.
3) Senior officials should take the following measures to address the widespread phenomenon of
self-censorship: Prosecute threats and acts of violence against journalists to the fullest extent of
the law and publicly expose the perpetrators; stop pressure to subscribe to particular media
outlets; and instruct intelligence services workers to restrict monitoring of media output to a
limited set of legally defined issues related to state security.
Finding MEDIA 8. Inadequate resources contribute to the poor quality, politicization, self-censorship,
and ownership concentration of media in Mongolia.
Recommendation: As the primary underlying problem is that the number of outlets exceeds the market,
broadcast licensing and print registration should reflect this concern, while the concentration of media
ownership should be regulated.