Media funding is now a global democratic issue. In times of conflict, media with the means to operate both independently and professionally can play a key role in rebuilding trust and discourse among the population – the first step towards restoring peace.
The media’s shift towards predominantly digital platforms has caused a long-term funding crisis in all regions of the world. This crisis has often resulted in takeovers by large industrial groups in search of political influence, which is why the economic models of independent information now need to be reinvented in the North as in the South.
Written information, once paid for on paper, has long been available for free online. Advertising revenues initially fell before recovering, but two-thirds have been absorbed by the giants of the digital economy. In rich countries where there is a sufficiently well-established rule of law, public service media can, at least in part, counterbalance this situation. Independent online media, i.e. funded mainly by their editors or readers, are also able to grow through subscriptions, donations, and occasional public subsidies.
In low and middle-income countries, especially authoritarian or crisis-ridden countries, these models are not sustainable; and international aid for media development is but a drop in the ocean (less than US$ 500 million per year, or 0.3% of global development aid), which is not enough to sustain media emerging from the grips of major economic or political interests.
Too much financial dependence on a single source of funding can undermine the editorial independence that journalists need in their work. This independence is all the more vital in countries in conflict, where the media is sometimes used as stakeholders to disseminate propaganda from both sides. However, there can be no media without funding.
Fondation Hirondelle conducts research into alternatives and suggests new governance models, reinvents new funding models, and combines traditional means of revenue generation with more creative ones. This work and action take place in countries in conflict or economic hardship, places where Fondation Hirondelle has been working for 28 years to support the work of local journalists and promote access to reliable information for communities on the frontline of crises and conflict.