About

Established in 2005, Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) is the ecosystem connector for the global community of public-interest and civic information actors, the organisations that support them, and the institutions whose decisions shape their future.

Today, GFMD brings together more than 240 organisations across a diverse community that includes journalism and media organisations; press freedom and media development organisations; associations and networks; fact-checkers; and actors working across policy, digital rights, technology and information integrity.

GFMD World Forum in Tirana, 2021

OUR MISSION

We convene, set standards, and bridge so that the community has the shared infrastructure and the collective power to sustain reliable information in every context where it is needed. GFMD does not deliver journalism, and does not substitute for the organisations it represents.

OUR VISION

A world in which democracy, human rights, and peaceful and just societies benefit from a free, pluralistic, and informed public sphere: where the community of public-interest and civic information organisations is recognised, resourced, and connected, not as a residual category of journalism, but as the institutional backbone of how reliable information reaches citizens.

OUR ROLE

We are the place where this community convenes, the standard-setter for how its support is governed, and the bridge to donors, regulators, platforms, and multilateral bodies.

WHAT WE DO

GFMD does not duplicate what members already do well. It focuses on where a global network can add distinct value: connecting people, organisations and institutions; translating complexity into actionable intelligence; enabling shared infrastructure; convening alliances; and building the collective power to influence the systems and decisions that shape the community’s future.

1. Shared infrastructure
   Facilitating and improving the shared infrastructure the community depends on but cannot build alone: the practical systems for funding intelligence, knowledge sharing, technology access, and crisis response that any single organisation finds too expensive to build for itself.
2. Collective power
   Building and using the community’s collective power: in policy, in funding, in standards, and in the institutional spaces where decisions about public-interest and civic information are made.

FOUR DELIVERY FUNCTIONS

1. Convene and connect: We bring the community together. We meet in person, online, and in the durable working groups and exchanges that sit between events. This is the function through which the community recognises itself as one.
2. Shape the rules: We translate the community’s positions into policy advocacy and standard-setting at the levels where decisions are made: European, multilateral, national-when-asked. Members across the consultation made advocacy their highest-priority continuation: it stays at the centre of what GFMD is for.
3. Incubate and share infrastructure: We run the funding intelligence, knowledge, technology, and crisis infrastructure and we make it accessible. The infrastructure has to work in more languages than English, in more time zones than European working hours, and on bandwidth and device profiles that frontline and survival-context members actually have.
4. Represent and respond: We speak for the community when it has agreed on something to say, and we coordinate a response when the community has agreed on something to do. Both halves matter: representation without coordinated response is rhetorical; response without representation is project work.

A GENUINELY GLOBAL AND DIVERSE COMMUNITY

GFMD’s strategy is built around three broad groups that shape and strengthen the media development ecosystem:

• Frontline actors
  Local and investigative news organisations; community and independent media; press-freedom, safety and legal-defence organisations; gender- and inclusion-focused media initiatives.
• System-shaping actors
  Regional, global and thematic networks; digital-rights and media-policy organisations; media-development implementers and training bodies; media-tech specialists.
• Funders, policymakers & ecosystem builders
  Donors and philanthropies; multilateral and regional institutions; policymakers and regulators; public service media; technology providers.

Two membership categories

• General members — independent organisations working significantly in journalism and media support.
• Affiliate members — journalism and media organisations, partners and grantees of GFMD general members.

See all GFMD members

WHAT GFMD HAS BUILT

• Journalism Cloud Alliance (JCA)
  Launched with OCCRP, the first collective initiative to secure shared cloud infrastructure for independent media organisations — driving a transformative approach to technology in investigative journalism and data newsrooms.

→ Learn more about infratype, a cloud exchange built by the JCA

• Fundraising Guide and Resource Centre
  Available in seven languages. Has attracted users from 160 countries seeking guidance on building compelling funding applications.

→ Access the Fundraising Guide in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Ukrainian, Russian and Romanian.

• EU Media Advocacy Working Group
  Administered by GFMD since first convening in 2019 with CPJ and EFJ, a non-hierarchical network of journalism support, media development, digital rights and democracy support organisations coordinating monthly on EU media policy: from the European Media Freedom Act to the Digital Services Act.

→ Explore GFMD Policy & Advocacy Centre

WHAT GFMD HAS ACHIEVED

⚖︎ European Media Freedom Act (EMFA)
Coordinated the EU Media Advocacy Working Group, bringing together 20+ organisations from journalism, media development, digital rights and democracy support throughout the legislative process.

⊕ UN Pact for the Future & Global Digital Compact
Mobilised 90+ organisations and 125 signatories from 54+ countries, contributing to Pact commitments on civic space and journalist protection in armed conflict.

§ OECD Principles for Relevant and Effective Support to Media and the Information Environment
After two years of advocacy co-led with CIMA, the OECD Development Assistance Committee adopted six guiding principles: the first shared standard bilateral donors united around.

⇄ Financing for Development / Compromiso de Sevilla
Made a formal intervention at the 4th UN Preparatory Committee, helping preserve recognition of journalism’s role in exposing illicit financial flows.

△ Crisis coordination
Provided a coordination function during acute crises across Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, bridging emergency response, advocacy, and longer-term media system change.

GFMD TODAY

240+

GET INVOLVED 

Whatever your role in this ecosystem, there’s a place for you at GFMD:
I run a journalism or media-support organisation:

→ BECOME A MEMBER

I’m a funder, policymaker, or partner organisation:

→ PARTNER WITH US OR SUPPORT US

I want to follow GFMD’s work:

→ SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERS

REPRESENTATIVE, MEMBER-LED GOVERNANCE

GFMD’s direction and accountability are anchored in its membership, through four bodies: the General Assembly, GFMD’s sovereign body and highest decision-making authority; the Steering Committee, elected by members to oversee strategy between Assemblies; the Executive Committee, its administrative body; and the Secretariat, which carries out the day-to-day work. Subcommittees on membership and policy/advocacy advise the Steering Committee and Secretariat within their mandates.

See the full governance structure, Constitution, and Code of Practice

PARTNERSHIPS

Partnerships are central to how we play that role. We work with funders, policymakers, multilateral institutions, networks and other partners to convene and connect the community, shape the rules that affect it, build and share infrastructure, and represent and respond around shared priorities.

The Global Forum for Media Development is funded by our members and through core and programmatic funding from public and private donors.

Learn more about GFMD’s donors and partners