Two axioms transcend geography and culture. One, there is no such a thing as a totally free or independent media. Two, all media operate within existing political, cultural and material constraining contexts. This applies to Al Arabiyya, Al Alam or Rotana in the Middle East, as much as it does to Fox, CNN, or the New York Times in the US.

Although still a relatively young technology, social networking is already a global phenomenon. In regions around the world – and in countries with varying levels of economic development – people who use the internet are using it for social networking. And this is particularly true of young people

India's foreign ministry - the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) - is now in a major exercise to 'reinvent' itself, moving away from its perceived ivory tower existence to occupying a more interactive space on public platforms across the multimedia communication space.

On December 10-11, Philip Seib, CPD Director, Nicholas Cull, CPD University Fellow and Director of the USC Master of Public Diplomacy Program and Eytan Gilboa, CPD Senior Scholar held workshops at the Public Diplomacy in the Information Age Conference & Workshops, hosted by CMS Academy, in New Delhi, India.

People-to-people diplomacy is playing an important role in international relations in the contemporary global world, adding a new dimension to international relations and redefining the way a country engages with its citizens to garner support for its foreign policy and national interests.

Before the WikiLeaks crisis, the State Department began a new initiative called "21st Century Statecraft", which includes a drive to expand openness and combat government censorship in cyberspace. As part of that initiative, the State Department announced on Tuesday that it will host UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, meant to champion the free flow of information on the Internet. The event will be held at the Newseum in Washington from May 1 to 3, and the theme will be "21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers."