The programme aims at deepening the understanding of Finland and to create a positive attitude towards it. In the long run it is an investment into future media relations that are an integral part of the Ministry’s public diplomacy.

China International Broadcasting Network (CIBN), run by the state-owned radio station China Radio International, has recently been approved for establishment by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. This international new media broadcasting network will feature 61 languages and international characteristics.

In 2002 and 2007, The New York Times published my pieces about the need for autonomy in U.S. international broadcasting. On July 13, they published me again. The op-ed, "Radio Free of Bureaucracy" is about my other recurring theme: the need for consolidation in U.S. international broadcasting.

North Korea's floods have received a flurry of media attention that appears aimed at burnishing the crisis-management skills of 'dear leader' Kim Jong-il – and bolstering his son's prestige as Kim's eventual successor.

After spending billions of dollars to successfully host the World Cup — and reveling in how the monthlong global coverage burnished the country’s reputation as a democratic beacon — the government is finding that it has created a major public relations problem.

Having never used Facebook or sent a tweet, and with no desire to do so, I am what you might call a social media sceptic...It troubles me to contemplate the effect it's having on government and public policymaking - when politicians feel the need to respond to the gossip and information generated with such rapidity by Twitter.

The experience of Wikileaks has much in common with those engaged in Public Diplomacy and seeking to measure their attempts to disperse information on specific issues. Examining Wikileaks provides a case study of an attempt to map a network of influence and identify key nodes within that network.

China Media Capital is supported by the Chinese government and will take controlling shares in the TV channels which Rupert Murdoch had hoped would deliver mass audiences. But Beijing has kept a tight rein on foreign media players, including the world's biggest.