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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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Whose Media Freedom is Being Defended? Norm Contestation in International Media Freedom Campaigns

Martin Scott, Mel Bunce, Mary Myers, Maria Carmen Fernandez

Journal of Communication, volume 73, issue 2 (2023), pp. 87-100

"This article analyses how international advocacy campaigns approach and define media freedom, and what influences this process. It does this through a two-year case study of the Media Freedom Coalition—an intergovernmental partnership of over 50 countries—that included 55 interviews with key st ... more

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Sudan’s Brief, Fragile Reform Window (2019–2021)

Mary Myers, Lina Yassin

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 32 pp.

"We find that there is a will for reform from the civilian part of the government, the international community, independent media professionals, and a handful of Sudanese CSOs. However, pushing for a free media is a low priority for most of the population, who have more urgent survival and security ... more

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Reset Required? Evaluating the Media Freedom Coalition After its First Two Years

Mary Myers, Martin Scott, Mel Bunce, Lina Yassin, Maria Carmen Fernandez, Rachel Khan

University of East Anglia (UEA);City University of London;University of the Philippines-Diliman (2022), 69 pp.

"The purpose of this report is to evaluate the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) in its first two years of operation, from 2019 to 2021. The MFC is a partnership of 50 countries working together to advocate for media freedom and the safety of journalists. Our independent report is based on over 100 inte ... more

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Sudan’s Brief, Fragile Reform Window (2019–2021)

Mary Myers, Lina Yassin

Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 8 pp.

"This report, part of the Center for International Media Assistance's "Media Reform amid Political Upheaval" series, re-views Sudan's media climate and examines the role of Sudan's government, media, foreign donors, and international me-dia assistance actors in attempting to foster change in a count ... more

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External Evaluation of the 'No News is Bad News' Programme: Executive Summary

Mary Myers, Nicola Harford, Soledad Muñiz, Rosie Steward

Amsterdam: Free Press Unlimited (2021), 12 pp.

"No News Is Bad News (NNIBN) was an excellent programme in terms of effort, on the part of Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and all their partners. The programme has supported courageous, committed, energetic and initiative-taking partners who have promoted rights to ... more

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Local Radio Stations in Africa: Sustainability or Pragmatic Viability?
Top Insights

Mary Myers, Nicola Harford

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2020), 28 pp.

"Radio stations across Africa are facing unprecedented threats to their sustainability due to weak media markets, limited advertising revenue and intense competition. A more pragmatic understanding of viability and more flexible donor strategies can help these outlets stay on air and maintain their ... more

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Shining a Spotlight on Media Freedom? Media Coverage of the Global Campaign for Media Freedom

Martin Scott, Mel Bunce, Mary Myers

City University of London;University of East Anglia (2020), 26 pp.

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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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Nigerian Newspapers: The Attractions and Drawbacks of Foreign Aid Funding

Mary Myers

African Journalism Studies, volume 39, issue 2 (2018), pp. 30-41

"This article looks at the relationship between four major newspapers in Nigeria and foreign donors. The discussion centres on the attractions and drawbacks of foreign donor funding from these newspapers’ point of view and highlights points of convergence and divergence in the agendas of the newsp ... more

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Media Assistance: Review of the Recent Literature and Other Donors’ Approaches
Top Insights

Mary Myers, Nicola Harford, Katie Bartholomew

iMedia Associates;Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) (2017), 82 pp.

"The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has commissioned iMedia Associates (iMedia) to conduct a Capitalisation Exercise (CapEx) of its media assistance, with the primary objective of examining its current programmes and bringing out lessons learned. As the second output of this CapE ... more

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SDC’s Media Assistance: Report of Capitalisation Exercise

Mary Myers, Nicola Harford, Katie Bartholomew

iMedia Associates (2017), 101 pp.

"This is a review of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s (SDC) media assistance by consultants from iMedia. The aim is to capitalise on SDC’s experience of media over the last 10 years. The objective is to examine the organisation’s current media assistance programmes and bring ... more

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Rapport de l’evaluation finale du projet «Informorac Bandundu»: Initiative de formation mobile des radios communautaires, RD. Congo, 2011 - 2014

Mary Myers, Pascal Chirhalwirwa

Free Press Unlimited (2015), 70 pp.

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Africa's Media Boom: The Role of International Aid
Top Insights

Mary Myers

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2014), 35 pp.

"Since the early 1990s, media outlets in Sub-Saharan Africa have proliferated extraordinarily, freeing Africa's press and liberating the airwaves from monopoly by the state. This paper summarises these developments and analyses in how far foreign donors were catalysts of this development. ... more

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International Media Assistance: Experiences and Prospects

Mary Myers, Marie-Soleil Frère, Christoph Dietz

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 4, issue 2 (2014), 7 pp.

"As an introduction to this special issue this article deals firstly with defining and clarifying terms and concepts which are used in the context of international media assistance. Secondly, the themes of the different articles in this collection are enumerated: these are broadly the how to of medi ... more

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Is There a Link Between Digital Media and Good Governance? What the Academics Say

Mary Myers

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2013), 38 pp.

"From this short survey of some key thinkers, can we conclude that there is a causal link between digital media and good governance? The sum of the arguments and cases presented here do not point to a causal link, but they certainly show that digital technology is shaping social movements and politi ... more

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Is There a Link Between Media and Good Governance? What the Academics Say

Mary Myers

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2012), 45 pp.

"From this short survey of some key thinkers, can we conclude that there is a causal link between media and good governance? Does the existence of a free media increase accountability and reduce corruption? Do media influence society in positive ways and liberate the individual? As one would expect, ... more

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Support to Media Where Media Freedoms and Rights Are Constrained: What Works and Why? Global Synthesis Report

Mary Myers

London: BBC Media Action (2012), 32 pp.

"This report addresses the challenges of supporting independent media in countries where media freedoms are restricted, based on country case studies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, South Sudan, Syria and Uganda. According to Myers, the dilemmas of foreig ... more

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Radio, ICT Convergence and Knowledge Brokerage: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa

Heather Gilberds, Mary Myers

IDS Bulletin (Institute of Development Studies), volume 43, issue 5 (2012), pp. 76-83

"This article examines the changing role of radio for development in sub-Saharan Africa as ‘new’ Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) increasingly enter the information landscape. Grounded in the empirical findings of a research programme – Radio, Convergence and Development in Af ... more

Local Radio Stations in Africa: Sustainability or Pragmatic Viability? Top Insights

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

Media Assistance: Review of the Recent Literature and Other Donors’ Approaches Top Insights

Africa's Media Boom: The Role of International Aid Top Insights

Local Radio Stations in Africa: Sustainability or Pragmatic Viability?
Top Insights

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

Media Assistance: Review of the Recent Literature and Other Donors’ Approaches
Top Insights

Africa's Media Boom: The Role of International Aid
Top Insights