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USA: Trump's foreign aid freeze throws journalism around the world into chaos

Reporters Without Borders, February 6 (2025)

"President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including over $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounces this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, an ... more

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‘We have nothing now’: Myanmar’s exiled media face existential crisis after Trump severs aid

Kate Lamb, Rebecca Ratcliffe

The Guardian, 23 February (2025)

"Organisations that take extreme risks to document atrocities, corruption and war crimes fear for their future after USAid cuts." (Introduction)

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Crisis in Journalism: The Impact of the US Government Funding Cuts on Global Media

Rafiq Copeland (prep.)

Internews Europe (2025), 12 pp.

"In FY2024, the US Congress approved $271.5 million in foreign assistance through the US State Department and USAID in the category of “Independent Media and Free Flow of Information”. Of this, an estimated $150 million directly funded journalism and media support, with the remainder supporting ... the wider information ecosystem and enabling environment through related topics such as freedom of expression, technology policy and digital rights (often with significant overlap between programming). In 2025 and beyond, the vast majority of this funding will disappear – potentially for good. The sudden revocation of funding has dealt a devastating blow to local media outlets, forcing many to shut down or drastically reduce their operations. This has cut off crucial financial support and resources, leaving journalists without the means to continue their vital work when they need it most. The media outlets that have been most reliant on US Government (USG) funding are those operating in the world’s most challenging and volatile environments – conflict zones, authoritarian regimes, disaster-affected regions and underserved communities where access to reliable information can be a matter of life and death. In these contexts, other business models, such as advertising or subscriptions, are often non-existent or unreliable. And it’s not just media organisations that have been devastated by these cuts – associated support organisations, such as unions, training institutions, legal services, and advocacy bodies, have also been severely impacted. Many of the global media outlets that received USG funding have had to immediately cut staff and reduce coverage, while almost all face reduced ability to operate, and uncertainty around longer-term viability. For media operating in high-risk or authoritarian contexts, funding cuts have dramatically increased their vulnerability, not only by weakening operations but by exposing them to greater legal and physical threats. As “lawfare” tactics like defamation suits and restrictive media laws rise, so too do coordinated attacks on journalists’ digital and physical safety – deliberate efforts to silence dissent and suppress democratic discourse. While some partners have been able to temporarily maintain operations, without new funding, the resulting reduction in capacity looks set to deteriorate further." (Overview, page 2) more

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We just lost our best chance in a generation to expand media freedom

Nicholas Benequista

Center for News, Technology & Innovation, February 27 (2025)

"A US retreat from international media assistance will set back the global movement for media freedom by years. The gap left behind will not be easy to fill. The movement, however, can be sustained by fortifying its roots. In time, the movement could emerge stronger." (Introduction)

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The USAID Crisis and Funding the Future of Independent Media

Rowan Philp

Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), February 17 (2025)

"Independent nonprofit media around the globe suddenly find themselves at the center of a perfect storm of at least four new existential threats. The sudden hold on USAID foreign assistance funding by the US Trump administration has frozen an estimated $268 million in agreed grants for independent ... media and the free flow of information in more than 30 countries, including several under repressive regimes — and much more lost for the future — throwing much of the nonprofit watchdog sector into crisis, and potentially leaving numerous reporters, contractors, and accountability projects without pay in the weeks ahead. This is in addition to devastating cuts to the agency’s public health and humanitarian programs around the world. Despite ongoing confusion and many legal challenges, several media grantees and experts told GIJN they regard this important funding as dead. The ransacking of USAID systems by unaccountable private sector agents poses an urgent data security threat to journalists, according to development experts. They have warned that contact details of thousands of human rights defenders, media support actors, and journalists involved in US-funded projects in the past decades, as well as information on what they do and how they work, has fallen into hostile hands. The USAID freeze and accompanying US administration social media attacks on officials and beneficiaries has fueled new threats and proposed criminal investigations by enemies of independent media in repressive nations. It has also amplified public smears against courageous networks holding bad actors accountable in the public interest. The freeze further disrupts an already fractured sustainability environment in which some funders have slowly exited the sector, and in which policy changes at major social media and tech companies have suppressed distribution, promoted misinformation, and enabled harassment of independent media and its sources. The risk of self-censorship to lure future funding is yet another allied threat in this bully landscape. Some of the gravest immediate threats are being faced by exiled outlets and independent media in places such as Ukraine, Cameroon, and throughout Central America. For example, Ukraine’s Slidstvo.info, an award-winning independent investigative agency, lost 80% of its funding in a single day in January, as its two respected intermediary funders reportedly confessed their own shock, and reluctantly but firmly warned the organization to immediately halt operations on the USAID money they disburse — including any use of grant money already in the outlet’s account." (Introduction) more

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In Eastern Europe, freeze on US aid leaves door open to Russian disinformation

Romain Chauvet

Washington, DC: International Center for Journalists, February 25 (2025)

"The Trump administration’s freeze on U.S. foreign aid will lead to a surge in Russian disinformation across Eastern Europe, experts warn, as independent media outlets across the region will be forced to shutter, leaving a vacuum of credible information in their wake. “Russian disinfo will have ... more

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Trump’s aid cuts will lead to a surge in propaganda and misinformation, say press freedom groups

Harriet Barber, Rebecca Ratcliffe, Deepa Parent

The Guardian, February 11 (2025)

"Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze will lead to a decline in the number ofindependent media outlets across the world, causing a surge in misinformation andplaying into the hands of state propagandists, media organisations have warned. The US president has suspended billions of dollars in projects ... more

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Wie Trump internationale Medien schwächt

Marcus Bensmann, Till Eckert, David Schraven

Correctiv, 20. Februar (2025)

"Hinter dem Ende der US-Auslandshilfen durch „USAID“ steckt offensichtlich mehr als eine Sparmaßnahme. Für Donald Trump ist das ein Mittel, kritische Medien zu mahnen – und Berichterstattung einzudämmen. Ein investigatives Mediennetzwerk musste bereits Dutzende Menschen entlassen. Das inter ... more

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Trump funding freeze halts decades of U.S. democracy work around the world

Frank Langfitt

National Public Radio (NPR), February 18 (2025)

"The Trump administration has stopped funding practically all U.S. government work supporting democracy, human rights and press freedom around the globe. President Trump issued an executive order last month halting congressionally appropriated foreign assistance, pending a review of the programs fun ... more

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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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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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Media Training in Transition Countries: Perspectives of a Media Trainer

Sam Swan

London; New York: Routledge (2022), xiv, 142 pp.

"Drawing on the author’s and other media trainers’ experiences over a 25-year period, this book provides important insights into tailoring training programs to specific regions and countries. Case studies describe training in radio and television management, broadcasting, and media sustainabilit ... more

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Environmental Media Grantmaking: How Funders Are Tipping the Scales Toward Change

Sarah Armour-Jones

Philadelphia: Media Impact Funders (2020), 32 pp.

"This report—which complements MIF’s in-person and online convenings throughout the year—aims to highlight trends in environmental media grantmaking, impact studies and examples of promising media projects, and insights from funders in the space. This report focuses on U.S. funders who give in ... more

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Funder Perspectives: Assessing Media Investments

Media Impact Funders (2015), 22 pp.

"Media funders are still looking at questions of media assessment through many different lenses. The survey results indicated that the two biggest challenges facing this field are lack of consensus about what constitutes “impact” (33%) and lack of clarity about methods/measures within the media ... more

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U.S. Government Funding for Media: Trends and Strategies

Peter Cary, Rosemary D'Amour

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2013), 46 pp.

"U.S. government support for international media development is declining. Spending by the Department of State and USAID for media freedom and freedom of information programs has dropped 43.5 percent in the past five years–from $135 million in Fiscal Year 2008 to approximately $76.3 million in FY ... more

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Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 Transition: Lessons from the United States and the Netherlands

Jorrit Kamminga

The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael' (2013), 25 pp.

"The end of the security transition process in Afghanistan in 2014 marks the need to rethink foreign public diplomacy efforts in the country. As Afghanistan is entering its ‘transformational decade’, there is a unique opportunity to disconnect public diplomacy from the military–security paradi ... more

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Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster a Free Press and an Open Internet Around the World
Top Insights

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), 2nd ed. (2012), 149 pp.

"This report examines seven central areas of media development—funding, digital media, sustainability, media law, journalists' safety, journalism education, and monitoring and evaluation. It also delves in-depth into four areas deserving of greater attention: citizen journalism, investigative jour ... more

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Performance Evaluation Afghanistan Media Development and Empowerment Project (AMDEP)

Richard Martin, William Canter, Yama Hotak

Washington, DC: Checchi and Company Consulting;USAID (2012), iv, 103 pp.

"The purpose of this evaluation is to identify results and lessons learned from USAID’s Afghanistan Media Development and Empowerment Project (AMDEP). AMDEP was designed as a one-year project (later extended) that began on November 1, 2010. It built on eight years of previous USAID media activitie ... s in Afghanistan and continued USAID’s strategic focus on improving news and development-related radio information for under-served groups such as rural families, women and young people. Through the consistent funding and support to the radio industry in Afghanistan, USAID has underwritten an enhanced forum for news and information programming outside of Kabul. By choosing radio as its primary tool, the initial groundwork was laid for a national messaging forum. Enabling provincial and district broadcasters to receive a consistent and increasingly professional series of programs was a good approach. That many of the programs have to do with national, regional and international news and information is creating the conditions for more and better citizen participation in democratic development. The stage has been set for national advertising supported messaging in the future. AMDEP supports a comprehensive “value chain” approach to strengthening the media sector, dealing with training of journalists; establishing and operating a network of rural radio stations; introducing “new media” to enable amateur voices to communicate about social, economic, and development issues; encouraging advocacy to protect journalistic freedoms; helping citizens understand and value the importance of media information and news; training media lawyers; and supporting new media laws and policies that will support development of a dynamic, independent media industry. Internews is the lead implementer of AMDEP activities and of previous USAID media activities that led to AMDEP. Overall, AMDEP has been remarkably successful. It had to function in a context of administrative delays and funding uncertainties, security threats, an environment of many different media projects and an unpredictable economy. The technical and managerial depth of the Internews team was an important factor in the project’s success, as was its selection of effective Afghan partner organizations. Flexibility and agility on the part of USAID and Internews made it possible to adapt to changing circumstances." (Executive summary, page 1) more

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Continental Shift: New Trends in Private U.S. Funding for Media Development

Anne Nelson

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2011), 26 pp.

"This work is an update of the October 2009 CIMA report, Experimentation and Evolution in Private U.S. Funding of Media Development by the same author. The field of private sector funding of independent media abroad has continued to undergo a massive upheaval over the past two years. Both the 2008 r ... more

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Towards a New Model: Media and Communication in Post-Conflict and Fragile States
Top Insights

Shanthi Kalathil, John Langlois, Adam Kaplan

Washington, DC: World Bank, Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) (2008), 105 pp.

"There is very little undestanding of the role that communicartion processes play in the numerous starnds of post-conflict reconstruction, including peacebuilding, governance, and long-term development. This paper addressess this gap by distilling lessons learned from the media and communication str ... more

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

Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster a Free Press and an Open Internet Around the World Top Insights

Towards a New Model: Media and Communication in Post-Conflict and Fragile States Top Insights

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

Empowering Independent Media: U.S. Efforts to Foster a Free Press and an Open Internet Around the World
Top Insights

Towards a New Model: Media and Communication in Post-Conflict and Fragile States
Top Insights