Invest in free media: Europe’s democratic foundation

Across the world, journalism is under siege. The very conditions that allow free societies to function are being dismantled and replaced by information models that reward manipulation over truth and opacity over accountability. Public-interest media are being attacked, financially undermined, algorithmically marginalised and are fast disappearing.

Despite international commitments to human rights and media freedom, the scale of global investment in the healthy information ecosystem remains alarmingly low. According to the new Index on International Media Freedom Support (IMFS), the 30 leading donor states allocated on average just 0.16 % of their Official Development Assistance (ODA) to media support in 2023. Thirteen countries contributed less than 0.1 %, and three reported none at all. This funding, nearing statistical mistake levels, reflects a deeper failure to recognise that defending human rights and democracies requires systemic reform and sustained financing.

Multilateral frameworks, such as the Media Freedom Coalition and the OECD-DAC Principles for Relevant and Effective Support to Media and the Information Environment, have set out clear ambitions to strengthen local leadership and increase investment in media. Yet, amid the global erosion of multilateral effectiveness, these commitments are drifting further from implementation. The gap between principle and practice is widening: no state currently meets the Forum on Information & Democracy’s benchmark of allocating at least 1% of ODA to media development, let alone the more ambitious target of 0.1% of GDP annually to sustain news organisations. Without renewed political will, these frameworks risk becoming symbolic gestures in a collapsing financial architecture for truth.

This is why, together with 135 organisations, GFMD is calling on EU institutions and Member States to ensure that the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034) provides the scale of support, at home and abroad, needed to sustain journalism, strengthen civic space, and correct the structural failures that undermine both.

Europe must align its financial instruments with its democratic ambitions—by recognising independent journalism as essential democratic infrastructure, by rebalancing digital markets, and by investing in public-interest information systems that are open, transparent, and interoperable.

The time to act is now. We invite you to join us in signing and sharing the joint letter, and to help ensure that Europe’s next MFF becomes a model for strategic, sustained investment in free media — for Europe and beyond.

With solidarity,

Mira Milosevic, GFMD Executive Director

Invest in free media: Europe’s democratic foundation

Our joint letter, “Invest in Free Media: Europe’s Democratic Foundation,” urges the European Parliament, the European Commission, and Member States to ensure that the next MFF delivers long-term, coordinated investment in journalism as a cornerstone of Europe’s democratic and digital infrastructure.

We specifically call for:

• The AgoraEU programme to translate its budget increase into a proportional rise in support for independent journalism and public interest media.
• The Global Europe mechanism to ensure that EU external action strengthens media pluralism, local media capacity, journalist safety, and trustworthy information ecosystems in partner countries.
• The European Competitiveness Fund to be designed to catalyse private and institutional investment in the media and information ecosystem.

Help Us Spread the Word!

To enhance the impact of our letter, we’ve created an Advocacy Toolkit with guidance for contacting Members of the European Parliament and other policymakers involved in MFF negotiations, along with social media assets and sample emails for sharing the letter.

You can help increase visibility by:

💻 Publishing the letter on your organisation’s website or newsletter (embed the Google Doc version to keep signatories updated).
🌐 Forwarding it to partners, networks, and policymakers.
📱 Sharing it on social media using the examples in the toolkit

📢 Every signature and share strengthens our call for Europe to invest in free, independent media as a democratic foundation.