We are pleased to present to you the 2016 Media Freedom Report. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to UNESCO Beijing Office for their support of our publication.  

The first part of this year’s report introduces you to the freedom of expression legal framework, in particular its guarantees and restrictions, and we highlight the 2016 freedom of expression violations in the report’s second part.

The report notes some changes in the country’s media law in 2016. Notably the Law on the List of State Secrets and the Law on Organizational Privacy were invalidated and replaced by Laws on State and Office Secrets. The newly elected Parliament made the decision to postpone the introduction of the new Criminal Law and the Law on Administrative Measures, which should have been effective 1st September 2016

Globe International Center’s freedom of expression monitoring has recorded a total of 63 cases of violations. The majority, 52.5% of cases were against web sites and social media, 26.2% against broadcast media, 14.8% against print media and 6.5% were against individuals and freelance journalists. In 77% of cases, media were based in Mongolia’s capital and 23% were local media.  In 57.4 of incidents, freedoms of expression violators were politicians, authorities, public officials and public bodies.

In 2016, the Mongolian courts heard a total of 12 civil cases and one criminal defamation case and compared to 2015, the number of civil cases increased from 10 to 12, while criminal cases decreased from five to one.
 
It is commendable that Mongolia adopted two policies to protect journalists and ensure their safety. On 5th May, 2015 Mongolia assessed the UN Universal Periodic Review (UN UPR) and saw that eight countries had issued freedom of expression recommendations in order to harmonize national legislation with international law, ensuring independence of their regulatory bodies; decriminalization of defamation; ensuring the legal protection of journalistic sources and whistle blowers; and provisions for the safety of journalists and human rights activists. The Mongolian Government accepted all recommendations and adopted them in its General Action Plan on the implementation of UPR, by resolution No: 204 on 11th April 2016.

The National Program to Fight Corruption adopted by the Parliament on 3rd November  2016, pledges to: "Create a legal environment for the protection of whistle bowlers and journalists” (4.1.5.6), "Create legal regulations to decriminalize defamation, ensure the safety and protection from attack and pressure of those journalists who investigate and report on corruption and the crimes of public officials" (4.1.8.2), "Enabling an environment which ensures the independence of media and safeguards media freedom”(4.1.8.3). UNESCO, in cooperation with NGOs, Globe International Center and Transparency Fund, and the Confederation of Mongolian Journalists, published a report and assessment of media development in Mongolia and submitted their recommendations delivered to the Mongolian Parliament.

Globe International Center has since formed a lobby group in the Parliament to advocate for the recommendations.

In 2016, Mongolia dropped from 60 to 69th place out of 180 world countries and is still rated as having notable problems around press freedom. According to Freedom House, Mongolia still remains a country with only partial press freedom.

Please click here to download full report