Call for Contributions: Media Freedom Coalition’s Consultative Network

The Consultative Network of the Media Freedom Coalition, created in January 2020, is a group of national, regional and international organisations that, in collaboration with a much broader set of civil society groups, voluntarily provides advice to the MFC on the Coalition’s work and facilitates selection of cases that it believes require State intervention.

In line with the key objectives of the Consultative Network (CN), the GFMD Secretariat intends to use its membership of the network to:

• Present cases to the MFC for action – both cases of concern in countries where media freedom is at particular risk and cases of individual journalists or media outlets under threat. This includes sharing information on the situation and providing recommendations on what the MFC can do to address it
• Offer advice on present and future issues within media freedom and media development, including speaking at MFC events, and channelling suggestions from CSOs, media, journalists’ associations, and others to inform the MFC membership;
• Monitor the work of the coalition and provide inputs on the day-to-day and strategic work of the MFC.

How to submit a case

As part of our role within the MFC’s Consultative Network, we encourage our members to submit cases of attacks against journalists and media outlets. If you’re interested in submitting such cases or situations of concern related to media freedom, please follow these steps:

1) read the MFC-CN’s Case Management Policy,

2) fill in the template, and

3) send it directly to Tom Law at tlaw@gfmd.info. Please note that, given limited capacity, we would encourage you to prioritise and manage expectations when submitting a case.

The Media Freedom Coalition’s Consultative Network (CN) invites Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including academia and news organisations to join its Broader CSO List to contribute to the objectives of the Network including presenting cases of attacks against journalists and concern on the situation of media freedom in a country to the MFC, offering advice on present and future issues of press freedom and media development, monitoring the work of the Coalition and holding it to account.  Learn more about how to join the Broader CSO List here.