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Frequently Asked Questions



1. What is MOM?



2. Who is behind MOM?


In Mongolia, RSF cooperates with the Press Institute of Mongolia.The project is funded by the Federal German Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ).

3. Where can I download this report?


4. Why is transparency of media ownership important?










5. What kind of concentration regulation does MOM suggest?



6. How is data collected and validated?

a) Official data sources, and/or sources with a high level of reliability and trust are prioritised.

b) In cases when information was not publicly available, it was directly requested from media companies, political representatives and research institutes.

c) In order to guarantee and verify the objective evaluation, MOM works with an advisory group that provides comments and consultations throughout the research process. It is composed of national specialists with a substantial knowledge and experience in media and communications. MOM advisers in Mongolia included Bat-Erdene.G, Mongol TV, Vice director of Strategic and Planning division, Lhagva.E, Chief editor Mongol TV and member of Media Council Mongolia, Enhbayar, Head of the regulation policy department at the regulatory committee CRC, and Tserenjav.D, director of the NGO “Transparency”.

d) All decisions on how data is selected, which sources are used - and which are not - are clearly indicated on the website of MOM Mongolia for each media outlet, each owner and also generally under the FAQs for Mongolia.

e)  All sources are thoroughly documented and archived. Most of them can be found in the library. Other documents are available upon request.

7. How is "most relevant media" defined?


The media were selected according to the following criteria:

MOM focuses on media with the highest reach, measured by audience / circulation share. The selection for the Monitor is based on recent media consumption surveys and audience research studies.

For MOM we select media with socio-political and economic content that has impact on public opinion. Content should have a national focus; however, world-wide broadcasting news outlets are excluded, as they do not target the national audience specifically (e.g. Al Jazeera). Media with specific thematic focus (music, sport), social networks, search engines and advertisement are also excluded. 

8. How are the media outlets selected?

The media were selected according to the following criteria:

MOM focuses on media with the highest reach, measured by audience share. The selection for the Monitor is usually based on recent media consumption surveys and audience research studies. But in Mongolia in-depth audience surveys are only available for the TV market, so we used this data compiled by the private company Maxima LLCC. For print media the circulation numbers compiled by the Press Institutes yearly report “Mongolian Media Today 2016” were used for ranking. For radio and online news media the same source was used this time based on PIM opinion polls on popularity and most used access to information.  

9. Why Mongolia?

MOM was developed as a generic methodology which can be universally applied. Although media concentration trends are observable worldwide, implementation and analysis will first take place in developing countries. Besides, the Media Pluralism Monitor delivers complementary results for European member states.

In the selection process, the country ranking in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters without Borders is the first important indicator for a problematic relation to media pluralism, media independence and transparency. A low ranking highlights which country being worth looking in depth into the risk of media ownership concentration.

The political context is also a condition for a successful implementation: on the one hand civil society organizations such as our local partners need to be able to operate relatively freely. On the other hand, the media landscape needs to be open to a certain extent: in a country where the state exercises absolute control over media, media ownership research would be irrelevant.

10. Does the MOM only exist for Mongolia?


11. What are the limitations of MOM?

The Mongolian research team was confronted with diverse obstacles at the data-collecting stage to measure media concentration. The most common problems include:

 Audience data is not consistent:  information on audience share is not standardized and there is no obligation to publish those data. It is commercial information that is usually collected by private companies upon request, and sold to media companies that base their advertising rates on it. In small markets like Mongolia it is usually not worthwhile economically to collect the data, so in-depth audience surveys exist only for the TV market. (Read more: How is media selected?

  No economic data: Market concentration based on market share cannot or can only partially be calculated since complete and credible numbers are not publicly available. In Mongolia such information is typically not disclosed and considered a “commercial secret”.

   No legal obligations to make ownership transparent: In Mongolia, print media and online news media have no legal obligations to make their ownership structures known to the public. Consequently, it was most difficult to find out through other sources who own the print media. For TV and radio channels, who are obliged to give ownership information to the official regulatory body CRC, the official data was incomplete and/or outdated.

12. Who do we target?

The data base of MOM in Mongolia

- allows each citizen to get informed on the media system in general and in Mongolia in particular;

- creates a fact base for civil society’s advocacy efforts to further promote public consciousness on media ownership and concentration in Mongolia and possibly give an example to neighboring countries;is a point of reference for consulting competition authorities or governmental bodies when establishing suitable regulatory measures to safeguard media pluralism;




13. What happens next?

The database is a snapshot of the current situation in Mongolia, contextualized by historical facts of the country. It is designed with the goal to be updated further by the Press Institute for Mongolia and Mongolian civil society in general.

14. Are there similar projects?




Acess Info 


Article 19


Deutsche Welle


European Audiovisual Observatory

A database of television and audiovisual services in Europe.

European Journalism Center




European University Institute in Florence






Media Pedia

A project that is monitoring the media ownership in Macedonia.


The Website provides information about media ownership in Great Britain.

Pew Research Center




The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information at Columbia Business School


The Institute for Media and Communication Policy



Media Development Indicators - A framework for assessing media development.

  • Project by
    Press Institute of Mongolia
    Reporters without borders
  • Funded by