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Press freedom under threat: Learn three ways USAID is ensuring free and independent media

Shannon Maguire

Medium;USAID (2024), 8 pp.

[...] Based on decades of evolving research, testing, and learning, USAID has expanded its understanding of the multiple intersecting threats media practitioners face - legal, physical, economic, and digital - and how necessary it is to work from many sides to build and reinforce media sectors that ... are as resilient as possible against the forces that would seek to shut them down. A major demonstration of this approach comes through USAID's Summit for Democracy commitments, a series of initiatives to address these threats and advance free and independent media. The first one is the Media Viability Accelerator (MVA), which was announced at the first Summit for Democracy in December 2021. The goal of the MVA is to preserve fact-based news and information media by providing access to the data they need to build strategies to survive, thrive, adapt, and grow as businesses. Through a public-private partnership with USAID, Microsoft, and Internews, MVA is a unique data platform using artificial intelligence and other digital tools to enable media outlets to better understand markets, audiences, and strategies that will maximize their odds of profitability. Second, USAID's $20 million contribution to the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) is helping to boost global support through grants to develop and sustain a wide range of independent news organizations. To date, IFPIM has committed nearly $9 million through 32 grants across 16 countries to media outlets in urgent need of financial assistance and to strengthen their long-term sustainability. USAID's initial seed funding has leveraged an additional $30 million from 15 governments, philanthropies, and corporate entities. The third initiative is Reporters Shield, an innovative program that helps protect investigative media outlets and civil society organizations from strategic litigation against public participation lawsuits, or other legal threats meant to silence their reporting. Prior to the launch of Reporters Shield, such help was inconsistent, ad hoc, reactive, and, often, expensive. USAID Administrator Samantha Power launched the next phase of USAID's Reporters Shield, at the United Nations Headquarters last World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Reporters Shield is now providing legal support services and capacity development for 12 media outlets and civil society organizations doing investigative reporting, with more than 100 applications still under review during the launch phase alone." (Pages 4-6) more

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Funding Journalism: A Guide for Canadian Philanthropy

Ana Sofía Hibon, April Lindgren, Sara Krynitzki

Inspirit Foundation;Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University;Philanthropic Foundations Canada (2024), 27 pp.

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Press Forward: A Guide for Local Funders

Press Forward (2024), 23 pp.

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Examining the Journalism Philanthropy Model: A Literature Review

Louisa Lincoln

International Journal of Communication, volume 18 (2024), pp. 889–907

"Amid the decline of commercial local news in the United States, another model has emerged as a growing alternative: philanthropy-supported journalism. Although foundation-funded journalism is not a particularly new model, the field has seen an influx of charitable funds in recent years—since 2009 ... more

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Mapping of media assistance and journalism support programmes in the Western Balkans region

Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) (2024), 7 pp.

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Breaking newsrooms: Are Myanmar’s exiled journalists getting a fair deal?

Ye Mon, Ben Dunant

Frontier Myanmar, September 9 (2024)

"Journalists are allegedly suffering exploitation and abuse at exiled news outlets, but there’s debate over whether the responsibility to respond falls on donors or a media industry that is taking gradual steps to self-regulate." (Introduction)

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A feminist take on international media development: How media development projects empower women and marginalized groups

Miriam Küller, Alexandra Spaeth

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2024), 34 pp.

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EU Funding in the Media: An Analysis of Journalism Projects Financed by the European Union

Nikolas Schäfer, Marius Dragomir

Tallinn; London: Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) (2024), 19 pp.

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Mapping out cross-regional expert exchange: A practical orientation to global peer collaboration and growth

Rune Meissel, Rose Kimani

Bonn: Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2024), 15 pp.

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Are Donors Taking the Journalism Crisis Seriously? An Analysis of Official Aid to Media 2010–2019

Mary Myers, Heather Gilberds

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2024), 32 pp.

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Safeguarding independent journalism in Latin America

Francisca Skoknic

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2024), 37 pp.

"In a region plagued by poverty, inequality, and attacks on press freedom, Latin American journalists have ventured into non-profit journalism to uphold democracy. Outlets producing award-winning and highly impactful journalism in the region include El Salvador’s El Faro, founded in 1998, Chile’ ... s Ciper (2007), IDL-Reporteros in Peru and La Silla Vacía in Colombia (2009), Animal Político in Mexico (2010), Agência Pública in Brazil and Plaza Pública in Guatemala (2011) – to name a few. But finding a sustainable financing model has eluded most outlets. There is limited advertising revenue for such controversial topics, and lower income audiences are hard-pressed to pay for news. This has led to an over-reliance on foreign funding to finance their work. Research by SembraMedia found that grants are the primary source of non-profit income, accounting for 63% of their revenue on average. To assess for myself how acutely reliant independent media in Latin America are on foreign donors, I set about analysing 40 independent outlets based in 16 countries. I focused on outlets that produce public interest journalism, play a significant role in their countries, and receive institutional foreign funding. [...] Between 2016 and 2022 those 40 outlets received more than $27 million from OSF and Ford Foundation. While Ford Foundation granted roughly half the number of grants as the Soros organisation, their grants were significantly larger, meaning the total amount donated was almost on par. OSF has been key in giving establishing grants to new outlets and then fostering their growth, while Ford tends to back outlets with a track record. Ana Joaquina Ruiz, Program Associate for Mexico, and Central America at Ford Foundation, told me: “OSF has the capacity to fund more innovative projects. Ford is a bit more conservative and works with projects that can be a contribution in the long term.” A third important player to consider in this ecosystem is Luminate, created by the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar. Publicly available data shows it has only distributed 11 grants between 2016 and 2022 among the 40 outlets I analysed. The average size of each grant was $360,000 – far more than the average Ford Foundation grants ($240,000) or OSF grants ($135,000). It is worth noting, however, that no consistent data could be found about the length of time each grant was intended to cover. An analysis of average amount granted per year might paint a different picture." (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk) more

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Decisions taken at the 68th Bureau Meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), 20-21 June 2024

Paris: International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) (2024), 10 pp.

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Results-based report on IPDC projects implemented in 2022-2023

Paris: International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) (2024), 47 pp.

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68th meeting of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council of IPDC 20 - 21 June 2024. Item 4 of the provisional agenda: Results-based report on projects approved by the 66th meeting of the IPDC Bureau (June 2022) and Rapid-response mechanism projects implemented in 2022-2023, part II

Paris: International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) (2024), 190 pp

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Mapping and analysis of ODA to media and the information environment
Top Insights

Laure-Hélène Piron

Paris: OECD;OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) (2024), 101 pp.

"Laure-Hélène Piron (The Policy Practice Director) undertook an analysis of official development assistance to media and the information environment for the Governance Network of the OECD Development Assistance Committee which was published in June 2024. The report shows that the rhetoric of gover ... more

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What Can We Learn From the Short History of Independent Media in Serbia? Radio B92, George Soros, and New Models of Media Development

Janet Steele

International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 29, issue 3 (2024), pp. 646-666

"Radio B92 was an iconic independent media institution in Serbia. Founded in 1989, B92 provided Belgrade listeners with subversive rock music, high-quality journalism, and independent perspectives on politics in the former Yugoslavia. An early adapter to the internet, B92 has been credited with spar ... more

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Breaking Barriers: A Whole-of-Society Approach to Gender Equality in Media Development

Sarah Macharia, Agneta Söderberg Jacobson, Malak Monir

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2024), 32 pp.

"In 1995, the international community enacted the “Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,” a watershed UN resolution affirming the global commitment to gender equality. Yet, nearly three decades later, gender inequality remains an intractable problem in the media sector. Women journalists ... more

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Flight and Fight: Supporting Exiled Media to Survive and Sustain

Isabelle Schläpfer, Rosie Parkyn

London: Internews (2024), 63 pp.

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Support to Afghan Media Resilience to Foster Peace and Security

Paris: UNESCO (2024), 14 pp.

"Since August 2021, almost 50% of media outlets have ceased their operations in Afghanistan. An estimated 90% of women journalists have lost their jobs, with many more media workers having fled the country or been forced into hiding. Replying to a call from over hundred anonymous journalists for con ... more

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Impact Framework for Media Projects. Toolkit

International Media Support (IMS);Local Media for Democracy Project;European Federation of Journalists (EFJ);Journalismfund Europe;Centre of Media Pluralism (2024), 13 pp.

"The impact framework is a set of tools and guidelines that helps to define targets for, track, and assess the impact of activities under the supported media projects in a clear and organised way; it can also be used for other media projects. Its methodology embraces a user-centric approach, links p ... more

Mapping and analysis of ODA to media and the information environment Top Insights

Mapping and analysis of ODA to media and the information environment
Top Insights