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“Priorities Were Chosen by Donors”: A Critical Review of International Media Assistance in Afghanistan (2001-2021)

Hazrat Bahar, Anja Wollenberg

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 15, issue 1 (2025), 23 pp.

"This study presents findings from research on international media development strate-gies and practices in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021. Based on qualitative interviews with 35 Afghan journalists in Afghanistan, the research offers a retroactive assessment of key patterns in International Medi ... more

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The Index on International Media Freedom Support 2025

Martin Scott, Mel Bunce, Shannon Maguire, Mary Myers

University of East Anglia, Centre for Journalism and Democracy; City St George’s, University of London (2025), 30 pp.

"The Index on International Media Freedom Support (IMFS) evaluates and ranks states based on their support for media freedom beyond their borders. It does this by analysing the contributions that countries have made to international diplomatic, financial and safety / protection initiatives that prom ... ote media freedom. The IMFS Index includes all states that are members of both the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) (30 countries). These countries have pledged to promote media freedom internationally, and the IMFS holds them accountable for these commitments. The Index draws on data from the previous calendar year (2024), except for the ODA figures, which are for 2023, due to the time lag in reporting. The IMFS Index is produced by an independent research group and is a joint project between City St George’s, University of London, and the University of East Anglia. The results of the 2025 IMFS Index highlight several well performing states: Lithuania (1st) is the highest ranked country, largely due to its diplomatic efforts, including its leadership of two multilateral initiatives. Sweden (2nd) spent a far higher proportion of its Official Development Assistance (ODA) on media development in 2023 than any other country (0.91%). It is the only country to get close to the benchmark of 1.0%, as recommended by the Forum on Information & Democracy. France (5th) is the only country to award funding to all four qualifying multilateral pooled funds in 2024. Latvia (9th) is the only country to have both an active emergency visa scheme dedicated to supporting journalists at-risk and to support a national initiative that promotes the protection and safety of media workers in exile. The IMFS Index also identifies several less encouraging trends and performances: No country performed consistently well across all three areas of diplomacy, funding and safety / protection. Almost two thirds of the 30 countries qualified for the lowest, bronze category, earning only 10 points or less. This includes four members of the G7: the United Kingdom (equal 12th), the United States (equal 12th), Italy (equal 24th) and Japan (28th). The lowest ranked countries were Japan (28th), Slovenia (equal 29th) and South Korea (equal 29th), due to their relative lack of support for diplomacy, funding and safety / protection. However, South Korea and Japan do provide support for the wider enabling environment for media freedom in their ODA spending, which is not measured by this Index. On average, the 30 states in the IMFS Index allocated just 0.16% of their ODA to media development in 2023. Thirteen countries awarded less than 0.1%, including three – Latvia (9th), Greece (21st), and Slovenia (29th) – which reported giving 0%. Only five countries had an emergency visa scheme for journalists in 2024, and only five hosted an assistance programme for journalists in exile. Twenty-one countries had neither." (Executive summary, pages 3-4) more

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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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Annual Report 2023

International Fund for Public Interest Media (2023), 26 pp.

"I am proud of the steps that the International Fund took in 2023 to advance its mission. We published our first strategy, expanded the global coalition supporting our work, and increased our total investment in news publishers in our focus countries to over $8 million USD across 31 portfolio organi ... more

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An Ambitious Idea Turned into Collective Action: IFPIM’s 2022 Annual Report

International Fund for Public Interest Media (2023), 19 pp.

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How “Insiders and Outsiders” Perceive Media Development Work: Reflections on Their Relationship and Cooperation

Mira Keßler

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 12, issue 1 (2022), 18 pp.

"This article tries to show that media development work could be based less on the idea of cooperation, but rather be perceived as a dominance of foreign funding countries and their politics. Taking this view, the donor organisations’ perceived dominance in controlling the entire process and meeti ... more

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Coordinating Media Assistance and Journalism Support Efforts

Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) (2022), 4 pp.

"The need for coordination within the media development sector is widely recognised – particularly in the wake of conflict or crisis." (Page 1)

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Portfolio Review 2021

New York: Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) (2022), 19 pp.

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Community Foundations & Media: Funding Data from 2009-2021

Philadelphia: Media Impact Funders;Knight Foundation (2021), 29 pp.

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Decoding Media Impact: Insights, Advice and Recommendations

Katie Donnelly

Philadelphia, Penns.: Media Impact Funders (2020), 31 pp.

"This guide is meant to serve as a practical resource for funders who want to understand where to start. Informed by feedback from our network, it represents a synthesis of the past seven years of work we’ve done in the impact space, and includes examples of successful media impact evaluation, too ... more

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Supporting Media at a Time of Crisis: Donors Explore New Strategies

Laura Schwartz-Henderson

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2020)

"Based on 27 interviews with representatives of both private and official donor agencies, it examines the major obstacles and stumbling blocks that will have to be avoided if global support to the media sector is increased. The institutional impediments to eective aid, the report nds, are frequently ... more

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Media Influence Matrix: Kazakhstan. Funding Journalism

Adil Nussipov

Budapest: Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) (2019), 26 pp.

"Only three of the ten most popular television channels in Kazakhstan are not government-owned. Former President Nursultan Nazarbayev directly or through his family, also owns television channels. For example, KTK, the second most watched television channel in the country is run by the Foundation of ... the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan-Elbasy. Another popular television channel, NTK, is owned directly by a Nazarbayev family member. Nazarbayev resigned in March 2019, but political analysts say that he did so to be able, before he dies, to supervise a smooth transition to a new regime that will continue his policies, ensuring centralization of political control and preventing criticism of authorities as Nazarbayev did during his 29-year tenure. When it comes to online news, the Government owns three of the 10 most visited websites: Kazinform.kz, Bnews.kz and 24.kz. In fact, none of the most popular news portals in Kazakhstan are independent and truly free of government control. For example, TengriNews.kz, one of the most read news websites is owned by the company Alash Media Group, which is known for promoting a strong pro-government narrative. The foreign influence in Kazakhstan’s media landscape is limited as foreigners can own only 20% of a media company. That being said, the Russian influence in the Kazakh media is notable. The most popular television channel in the country, Eurasia, jointly owned by the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia, is known for promoting a heavy pro-Russian agenda on world affairs. Another popular television channel, Channel 31 (31 Kanal) is co-owned by Bulat Utemuratov, a wealthy local businessman, and the Russian-funded STS Media Holding. Kenes Rakishev, another entrepreneur, owner of Channel Seven (Sedmoy Kanal), is also a partner in Fastlane Ventures, a prominent Russian venture fund that usually invests in internet companies. The Government is by far the largest funder in the media, with over €144m spent in cash dished out to media companies in 2017, more than the overall ad spend in Kazakhstan, according to industry estimates. Most of the government funding goes to government-owned media companies or privately held outlets that show support of the Government. For example, in television, the biggest chunk of government cash is spent on financing Khabar and Qazaqstan, two government-owned channels. In such a centralized media environment in which the Government plays a disproportionately big role, there is hardly any space for independent journalism. Owned by a civil society activist and journalist, Vlast.kz is arguably the sole truly independent news website among the 10 most visited websites in the country. There are other independent news media such as Azattyq, the local service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, but their audience is much smaller." (Page 4) more

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Media Development and the Market for Loyalties

Monroe E. Price

In: International Media Development: Historical Perspectives and New Frontiers

Nicholas Benequista; Susan Abbott; Paul Rothman; Winston Mano (eds.)

New York et al.: Peter Lang (2019), pp. 20-29

"My goal in this chapter is to place media development efforts within a specific frame: namely the actions of great strategic communicators (states, religions, transnational corporations, for example) as they seek to increase support for their general positions in the world. Development efforts can ... more

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Defending Independent Media: A Comprehensive Analysis of Aid Flows
Top Insights

Mary Myers, Linet Angaya Juma

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2018), 37 pp.

"When donors provide assistance to the media sector, they frequently back projects that aim to strengthen the media’s contribution to good governance in some way or another. This kind of funding is consistent with recent declarations made by the international community on the importance of protect ... more

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An Introduction to Funding Journalism and Media
Key Guidance

Sameer Padania

Ariadne European Funders for Social Change and Human Rights (2018), 43 pp.

"Section 1 summarises the background to and rationale for philanthropic funding of the media, including from a social justice and human rights perspective. This should help Ariadne grantmakers who are not sure if and why they should support media directly to make an informed decision, or to help mak ... more

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Journalism and Media Grantmaking: Five Things You Need to Know. Five Ways to Get Started

Michele McLellan

Philadelphia: Wyncote Foundation;Media Impact Funders, new ed. (2018), 34 pp.

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Apoio internacional ao Brasil e América Latina no campo da comunicação e do jornalismo digital

Cosette Castro

Journal of Latin American Communication Research, volume 6, issue 1-2 (2018), pp. 98-115

"Esta reflexão diz respeito à ajuda internacional recebida pelo Brasil e América Latina no campo da Comunicação e do Jornalismo digital nos últimos 30 anos. Trata-se das primeiras impressões sobre o apoio internacional e nacional (do Brasil a outros países) oferecido para desenvolver prátic ... more

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Media Interventions and the Syrian Crisis: Can We Do More?

Lina Srivastava, Vanessa Parra, Linda Raftree, Keefe Murren

Creative Impact and Experience Lab (CIEL);FilmAid (2018), 72 pp.

"[This publication] seeks to create a deeper understanding of the role of media interventions as strategic drivers of impact on the ongoing Syrian crisis. In exploring the impact of media interventions in this context, we conducted a landscape scan and a review of programs and approaches conducted b ... more

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Where are all the Asian-led programs to support fellowships and grants for journalists in Asia?

Susan Tam

Niemanlab, April 30 (2018)

"Wealth from Asia isn’t being channeled into media development on anything like the scale seen in the U.S. and Europe: “It’s not just about the money. It’s about priorities.”

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Journalism Education Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Examination of the Norwegian Model in Ethiopia

Téwodros W. Workneh

African Journalism Studies, volume 39, issue 2 (2018), pp. 9-29

"Recent trends in journalism education in Africa indicate a substantial increase both in scope and specialisation. While this increase is usually attributed to higher education institutions’ response to market trends, certain journalism education programmes are born out of development assistance i ... more

Defending Independent Media: A Comprehensive Analysis of Aid Flows Top Insights

An Introduction to Funding Journalism and Media Key Guidance

Defending Independent Media: A Comprehensive Analysis of Aid Flows
Top Insights

An Introduction to Funding Journalism and Media
Key Guidance