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from GFMD IMPACT
Wednesday April 19, 2023
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Scroll down to learn more about updating the Perugia Declaration for Ukraine, the Project Oasis launch report and other latest engagement opportunities. But first, this month's GFMD IMPACT briefing on the work of the Media Freedom Cohort at the second Summit for Democracy on March 29-30, 2023

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  THE BRIEFING   

 Background:  The Netherlands, together with the United States, and the governments of Costa Rica, Zambia and South Korea organised the second Summit for Democracy on March 29-30, 2023, bringing together representatives of the government, the private sector and civil society. The aim of the summit was to actively emphasise the importance of a well-functioning democracy and a free society that has access to reliable and independent information, and where press freedom and the safety of journalists are guaranteed. 

 

Since the first Summit for Democracy in 2021, at which countries from around the world pledged concrete actions to advance democracy at home and abroad, governments and civil society groups have worked together to convene Democracy Cohorts. These Cohorts gathered broader commitments from a wider array of stakeholders and provided recommendations, evidence and best practices to the second summit. 

The events in The Hague focused on the work of the Media Freedom Cohort – co-led by the Governments of Canada, the Netherlands and international media support NGO Internews.  

The Media Freedom Cohort:

  • Delivered more than 120 commitments to media freedom in our Findings Report, spanning government, civil society, media, and technology.

  • Presided over deep exploration of media freedom issues through the official 30 March event by Summit co-host The Netherlands and numerous side events in The Hague and Washington, DC.

  • Highlighted the importance of media freedom in other cohort themes, including anti-corruption, youth, elections, and technology, with panels at official events by Summit co-host Zambia and in Washington, DC.

  • Ensured the continuation of our efforts through the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC) which will take the Cohort’s work forward to ensure sustained action around our efforts.

The events in The Hague enabled the working groups of the Media Freedom Cohort to hold deeper discussions in order to prioritise what should be communicated to the Summit.

 Outcomes: The goal of these sessions was for each working group to come up with 3 core recommendations on their subtheme which successfully fed into the discussions during the MFA event on March 30. 

The meeting also contributed to the ongoing GFMD/CIMA-led consultation to inform the OECD’s process to renew and operationalise principles for effective media assistance which was included in the findings report:

Improving the effectiveness of media development assistance: The Media Freedom Coalition’s Media Development Working Group, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the United Kingdom, the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), and the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) have committed to advancing their engagement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee’s Network on Governance (GovNet) to update the existing media assistance principles so they better respond to the current context, and include a more operational focus. This is in line with a GovNet commitment in its programme of work 2023-2024. 

Read the GFMD/CIMA statement calling for engagement by the Summit for Democracy and the Media Freedom Coalition in Renewing Principles on Effective Support to Journalism and Media”.

You will find other issues in focus (p. 10) as well as innovative solutions (p.19) of the working group co-led by GFMD with the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom in the Media Freedom Cohort findings report.

ACCESS THE FINDINGS REPORT


Media viability in crisis

On the afternoon of March 29 GFMD together with UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), Free Press Unlimited, and DW Akademie hosted two sessions that brought together recommendations on how to sustain viable, independent media and journalism. 

The video and report from this session will be shared in the next newsletter. Learn more about the session here.

 

Thriving media for resilient democracies

On the morning of March 29 Free Press Unlimited organised a multi-stakeholder session showcasing hopeful initiatives from across the globe of diverse actors working on strengthening independent media’s resilience

Watch the session Thriving media for resilient democracies here

TO KNOW MORE

 
  • The work of the Media Freedom Cohort will be continued by the Media Freedom Coalition. If you are interested in staying involved in the process please email Media-Freedom-Cohort@internews.org
  • Understanding and Responding to Global News Threats (March 2023). This new research authored by Dr Courtney Radsch and published by Internews, calls for bold strategies, more money, and a collective infrastructure to support independent public service media and its role in democratic governance worldwide. It sets out a series of recommendations about how donors, implementers and diplomatic actors must reassess their approaches if they are to effectively support public interest media and address the increased precarity for media globally.
  • Eight Takeaways on Tech from the Summit for Democracy (March 2023). The article by Alex Engler summarizes the main points of the second Summit for Democracy, which focused on the role of technology in promoting and protecting democratic values. The article identifies eight key themes that emerged from the summit, such as improving digital public services, expanding internet access, regulating surveillance and artificial intelligence, supporting independent media and civil society, and fostering international cooperation
  • Whose media freedom is being defended? Norm contestation in international media freedom campaigns (December 2022). 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 stakeholders, observations, and document analysis. Find the summary here.

  WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?  

Our HELP DESK uses a network of experts and resources brought together by the GFMD IMPACT team to respond in a timely fashion to requests from donors, media development and journalism support practitioners and policymakers. Email helpdesk-impact@gfmd.info for more information and to submit a request. 

  TOWN SQUARE  

🇺🇦 Updating Perugia Declaration for Ukraine:  One year after the launch of the Perugia Declaration for Ukraine, GFMD is reaching out in collaboration with the organisers of the International Journalism Festival to assess the declaration’s impact and identify ways to strengthen its further implementation. We will use those insights to determine what progress has been made and where further collective action/support is needed and to update the declaration.


More context:  Perugia Declaration for Ukraine was launched at the International Journalism Festival on April 9, 2022. As a result, 219 media organizations signed it, we were able to translate it into 10 languages helping us to mobilize further and better support Ukrainian journalists and media (You can read more about GFMD’s emergency media support for Ukraine here). The Perugia Declaration has been the basis for our policy and advocacy efforts throughout the year, most notably on 4 May at the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) Conference in Uruguay 2022 at a high-level session “Safety of Journalists in Ukraine War” organised by UNESCO and GFMD (Watch the full session here)

How to engage: Please leave any comments and suggestions about how to improve and update the declaration directly in this draft working document where we have already added some suggestions and ideas. 
🇮🇹 
If you are attending the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy this week, and would like to arrange a meeting please email us at tlaw@gfmd.info (Tom Law) and/or ybezushko@gfmd.info (Liza Bezushko).

📝 Survey for misinformation experts: In partnership with USAID's Center for Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG), a team of researchers from American University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Houston is conducting a brief expert survey on interventions to address the problem of misinformation in developing countries. 

More context: Because the existing evidence on misinformation is geographically skewed with the bulk of it coming from the developed world, the objective is to make informed conjectures about how this evidence may or may not translate to the developing world.  Experts on misinformation and governance, including academics, practitioners and policymakers are invited to weigh in.

How to engage: To add your expert views, please take the short survey here.
📚 Project Oasis report launch: SembraMedia in partnership with Global Forum for Media Development, European Journalism Centre, Google News Initiative, International Media Support, Media and Journalism Research Center announces the launch of Project Oasis, a research project on the sustainability, innovation, and impact of independent digital native media in more than 40 countries in Europe.

More context: Project Oasis is a year-long research project on the sustainability, innovation, and impact of independent digital native news organisations in more than 40 countries across Europe. Its goal is to bring greater visibility to digital native media organisations and to uncover new insights about the trends, opportunities, and challenges in this growing market sector.

How to engage: You can access the Project Oasis directory and report here.

MORE ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

 
  • The Public Interest News Foundation seeks proposals for two small consultancy projects to create, curate and collate useful materials on (a) building and communicating the impact of public interest news, and (b) on news and community engagement. Consultants are welcome to propose a plan for one or both projects. More information here. To apply please send your proposal by midday 9 May 2023 tcontact@publicinterestnews.org.uk with the title ‘Response to Impact/Community RfP’. 

  WHAT TO READ THIS MONTH   

'There should be government funding to pay for journalism': The Digital Journalism Association's proposal for social media platform regulation in Brazil (April 2023). The article discusses the proposal of the Digital Journalism Association (Ajor) for social media platform regulation in Brazil. Ajor argues that direct negotiation between media companies and platforms would benefit only large communication conglomerates and exclude medium and small news outlets. The article also presents the perspective of Natalia Viana, Ajor's president, who invites journalists to engage in the debate about the sustainability of journalism.

Public interest infrastructure (March 2023). This IMS report examines why digital infrastructures are crucial to the work and survival of independent media, particularly in Majority World countries, and why the current infrastructures are a serious threat to press freedom, access to information and democracy. It also presents inspiration, examples and recommendations as to what a broad range of factors can do to create alternative public interest infrastructure and explains why media is a crucial actor to include in these processes.

Media Development in Practice: Innovation for Dialogue (March 2023). DW Akademie's new publication looks at how public dialogue could become fairer for all. The "I4D" approach would require societies with an infrastructure that serves public and not private interests, which gives everyone equal access to information, strengthens their participation and offers them protection from manipulation and disinformation.  

GFMD IMPACT

This newsletter is brought to you by GFMD's International Media Policy and Advisory Centre. GFMD IMPACT enables informed, evidence-based decisions about media development and journalism support strategies, programming, funding, and advocacy by:

  • facilitating meetings of donors, practitioners and academia to enable knowledge sharing, experience exchange, learning and collaboration;
  • commissioning research, publishing briefings and curating the most relevant resources for the sector;
  • managing a Help Desk, which uses GFMD's network of experts and resources to respond to requests for research, surveys, and insights in a timely manner.
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