Millennium Dev't Goals

Analysis by Milind Kokje*

The media seem to have lost their way. They not only have forgotten their social agenda but have also lost their very purpose due to the rampant commercialisation of the media 'business'. With this 'poverty of purpose', how can anyone expect this profession to help in eradicating poverty worldwide?

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, May 2 (IPS) - More than gaining the freedom to report on society’s problems Asian media must gauge it’s real contribution to the public‘s needs, especially at a time of increasing commercialisation.

By Lynette Lee Corporal

BANGKOK, May 2 (AMF) - The good news is that media, whether mainstream or community-based, can be effective tools in helping to make the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) a reality by 2015. The bad news? It's not happening.

Dr Margaret Chan, World Health Organisation director-general, examines current progress in achieving health-related Millennium Development Goals. In a speech delivered in April this year in Denmark, Chan noted that healthy systems tasked to "make interventions available, accessible and utilised" is in a crisis and urged them to "use the best strategies available" before it is too late.

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1 (IPS) - With less than two months before he steps down as secretary-general after a long 10-year tenure, Kofi Annan is disappointed that the international community is lagging behind in its much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (IPS) - Since hunger and famine are still widespread in parts of Africa and Asia, the international community is in violation of the right to food as a basic universal human right, according to a new study released by the United Nations.

   By Bhanubet Mahareankwan

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Asia Media Forum) - A framed black-and-white photograph of a young man stares down on two ageing parents seated outside their bamboo hut in Sankampaeng district here in this northern Thai province.

   By Bhanubet Mahareankwan

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - 'Access for All' was the slogan of the 15th International Conference on HIV/AIDS held in Thailand in July 2004.  Among those that made the commitment was the Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who had announced that every person living with HIV/AIDS would soon have equal access to ARV. More than a year later, the promise remains unfulfilled -- if not forgotten. 

   By Patricia Grogg

TUNIS, Nov 18 - While the transnational corporations showed off the latest in information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the world summit that ended Friday in Tunis, reporters from alternative radio stations remained loyal to their old tape recorders and microphones.

   By Hilmi Toros*

TUNIS, Nov 18 - The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) concluded Friday night with claims of success by the United Nations, governments and the private sector, but civil society refused to wholeheartedly embrace its outcome.