46th Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union /ABU/ General Assembly was successfully organized 5-6 October, 2009 in Ulaanbaatar. The Prime Minister of Mongolia S.Bayar gave a speech at the opening ceremony and congratulated officials and guests attended there, including Yoshinori Imai, president of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU); Jean Reveillon, director-general of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU); David Astley, the ABU secretary-general for their participation in the General Assembly.

An investigator, at the Independent Authority Against Corruption, Mr. Baasanbyamba called reporter G.Dashrentsen to question. Apparently, the reporter has not responded at the call yet. His colleagues’ guess leads to version that the call is related to ongoing investigation on former President N.Enkhbayar by the Authority.

UN Population’s Fund and National Committee on Gender Equality have declared initiation of project on gender issue research and activities on its effects. The project is scheduled to be implemented through 01 October-31 December 2009.

UNESCO, Beijing office and Globe International, a Mongolian NGO have concluded a consultative meeting titled “Right of the national minorities to access, produce and exchange information” on September 30, 2009 at Continental Hotel.

In accordance with the renewal of “Working Procedure of Public Counsel at the Independent Authority Against Corruption” by the Presidential decree #120 from 09 Sept 2009, new members of the Council were appointed. Globe International NGO Lawyer G.Davaakhuu is now in Public Relations Sub-committee of the Public Counsel.

A civil case established on the claim by Yaruu Soum Governor O. Enkhbat and others concerned with “Zavkhan” newspaper has been inspected upon the defendant claim at control level court of Supreme Court and reached a decision.

UNESCO, Beijing office and Globe International, a Mongolian NGO is organizing a consultative meeting titled Right of the national minorities to access, produce and exchange information on September 30, 2009 at Continental Hotel.

An estimated 50 people representing the government, human rights NGOs, Bayan-Olgii administration and Kazakh community will attend the meeting and discuss the present situation and challenges in Bayan-Olgii media, and how to improve the situation.

The 46th Assembly of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) will be held September 30- October 6 in Ulaanbaatar. The Assembly will gather some 370 delegates from Radio and TV channel organizations of over 60 countries. Attendees will share opinions and experiences on further development of broadcasting sector. After this, a decision is expected to be made on widening a partnership and cooperation among the ABU members.

The President of Mongolia, within the framework of preparation of amendments to  “Law on freedom of media and press” and draft of “Law on media and press entities”, has addressed to 139 newspappers and magazines, 24 televisions, 19 radio stations, and 5 NGOs and requested them to come up with their principal positions on the drafts of laws.

The conference is planning to be held at the end of 2009. In the frame of the EU-funded project “Business Roaming”, aiming at improving access to economic information and data critical to decision making for herders and rural SMEs in Mongolia, Internews Europe (www.internews.fr ) and Globe International (www.globeinter.org.mn) are organising a regional meeting in Ulan Bator to discuss the role of information & ICTs in rural development.