??Supporting public interest media in low- and middle-income countries

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When the?′Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development′ (PRIMED) ?programme was initiated in 2020,?from its onset it aimed to create and share learnings that would contribute to a more targeted and impactful global approach to supporting media outlets. As a result,?PRIMED prepared a series of learning briefs based on insights and data gathered during the implementation phase.

The programme partners facilitated?a series of workshops , throughout February and March 2024?inviting media participating in the programme, GFMD members, donors, policymakers, researchers, academics and the wider media development community to discuss the main findings and lessons learned.

Below is a summary of the programme′s key takeaways and selected reflections from over 160 participants of the workshops on the lessons PRIMED partners extracted while exploring media viability, public subsidies, coalition building and gender equality in public-interest media operating in low- and middle-income countries.

Read the full briefing here.

During the workshops, various topics were covered, including countering disinformation, supporting independent media in restrictive environments, and promoting media accountability and funding, from which the following recommendations for designing interventions to create healthier information ecosystems emerged:

Ideas on addressing key media development issues?

Speakers discussed the significance of learning components in media development programmes and shared their challenges and solutions for improving media ecosystems in developing countries.? When asked what they would focus on if they had a magic wand, workshop participants shared some of their ideas:

• Make tech companies accountable to communities
• Provide media working in the public interest with money and resources
• For media to stay connected with their audience’s needs and listen to their audience
• Look at how the funds and the money flow – and see this through a decolonised lens
• Apart from additional resources, architecture to be put in place to work systemically and strategically

?? Read five PRIMED learning briefs to explore more?programme’s findings and recommendations:

• Media viability ?
• Public subsidy to independent media: What works (and what doesn’t)
• Gender equality in the media
• Coalitions and coalition building to support media freedom
• Strategies to support public interest media in low- and middle-income countries: What works and what doesn’t

? Check out the full version of this newsletter to find out about the launch of the Journalism Cloud Alliance , GFMD Latin America & Caribbean Summit , Regional Meeting for members and partners in the wider European region ?and?efforts around the Summit of the Future ?as well as other?resources and media policy engagement opportunities.