The Forum on Information and Democracy calls for a New Deal for Journalism

Launched in November 2020, the Forum’s working group on the sustainability of journalism has developed an ambitious framework for the future of journalism. Entitled A New Deal for Journalism, it consists of a series of recommendations aimed at guaranteeing up to 0.1% of GDP a year in favour of it, with an exacting vision of journalism. The creation of the working group was welcomed by the Alliance for Multiculturalism and the Media Freedom Coalition.

The New Deal would be a massive commitment both at the national and the international scale to ensure the social function of journalism. Christophe Deloire, chair of the Forum, explains: “The New Deal for Journalism consists of linking together various points that up to now have been separate, i.e. how the market is organised, the technological environment, and the work of journalists, with its working practices and ethics. This amounts to rebuilding journalism, not as the ‘media sector’, but as an essential element of freedom of opinion and expression, predicated on the right to information.”

The working group’s steering committee is chaired by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and is composed of 17 international specialists. The report was written by a team of rapporteurs supervised by Sameer Padania, an expert on the information ecosystem.

“Journalists and the public they serve do not need comforting speeches,” said Nielsen. “They need concrete decisions.” He added that the report’s recommendations “offer an opportunity to break with years of inaction”.

The report is structured around four fields of action: media freedom, the independence of journalism, a favourable economic climate and support for a sustainable digital model. Among the recommendations are:

➢  Ensure full transparency of media ownership as part of broader measures on transparency, anti-corruption and financial integrity

➢  Implement initiatives allowing quality journalism to be singled out and given a comparative advantage again, such as the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI), to restore confidence among all stakeholders

➢  Support and adopt international measures for taxing digital platforms, such as the global minimum corporate tax rate proposed by the OECD

➢  Develop hybrid funding for the media, combining philanthropy and public support by establishing private-public blended financial instruments for commercial and non-profit media

➢  Secure from governments a commitment to spending 1% of official development assistance on support for independent media and their enabling environment

➢  Establish support mechanisms allowing citizens to support media organizations of their choice (such as media vouchers, tax relief on subscriptions, or income tax designations)

➢  Structure the reflection on the impact of AI on journalism by including journalism and media as strategic sectors in national Artificial Intelligence strategies and roadmaps

The extent of the crisis hitting journalism and the consequences of society’s failure to cope with it make the New Deal worth considering. The report makes clear that this wide-ranging plan will achieve its goal through the combined efforts, over a decade or more, of governments, regulators, industry, investors, financial donors, technology and civil society. The report makes a case for guaranteeing up to 0.1% of GDP a year for journalism. Some countries already do so, and others are invited to make similar provisions.

In the spirit of the “3 Rs” of Roosevelt’s New Deal – relief, recovery and reform – such a collective effort by dozens of countries will allow funding for the journalism ecosystem damaged by the coronavirus crisis (relief), allow it to complete the transition to the digital era (recovery), and anticipate future changes of technology paradigms in the 21st century (reform).

The first Summit of the Initiative on Information and Democracy will be held in September 2021, in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. The initiative articulates the work of civil society and democratic governments. It aims to define and create a system of democratic guarantees in the communication and information space in the era of globalization and digitalization. In the face of information chaos, it allies a legal approach (production of a doctrine for the regulation of digital platforms) with a geopolitical approach (the establishment of a coalition of democratic governments in order to promote their principles).

MEMBERS OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE

❖ Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, chair. Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. He is also Professor of Political Communication at the University of Oxford.

❖ Julia Cagé, co-director, Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies. As a professor of Economics, she published Saving the media: Capitalism, crowdfunding and democracy.

❖ Prem Chandran, co-founder and CEO, Malaysiakini. He also serves as non-executive director of KiniTV and FG Media, and he is the Chairperson of Asia Mobiliti.

❖ Styli Charalambous, publisher and CEO, Daily Maverick. He is a reformed accountant now working in media entrepreneurship.

❖ Naresh Fernandes, editor, Scroll. He is also on the editorial policy board of the World Policy Journal. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Time Out India and The Wall Street Journal in New York.

❖ Elizabeth Hansen, lead researcher of the News Sustainability and Business Models project, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.

❖ Kwame Karikari, professor in journalism and mass communication, School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the MFWA.

❖ Arne H. Krumsvik, Rector and Professor of Media and Communication, Kristiania University College. He is considered to be one of the founders of media innovations studies.

❖ Nishant Lalwani, Managing Director, Luminate. He also leads the organization’s work in narrative change across all its impact areas and oversees Luminate’s strategy, and partner support teams.

❖ Mira Milosevic, executive director, GFMD. She authored the World Press Trends reports, managed Media Development Programmes at WAN-IFRA, and was the director of Media Center Belgrade.

❖ Tania Montalvo, Executive editor, Animal Político. She started out as a reporter for Animal Político in 2013, with a focus on corruption, organized crime, violence and conflict.

❖ Henri Pigeat, former president, AFP. He is currently a press editor. Previously, he was the animator of the Quality of News and Information Task Force of the WAN.

❖ Sibylle Rizk, public policies director, Kulluna Irada. She is an expert of Lebanese challenges as the former Editor in Chief of the leading Lebanese monthly Le Commerce du Levant.

❖ Natalya Sindeyeva, founder and CEO, Dozhd. Dozhd is a Russian independent television channel. Natalia has twice won the ‘Russia’s media manager’ award for her work on radio and in television.

❖ Olaf Steenfadt, head of the “Journalism Trust Initiative” at RSF. Olaf is a member of the “Committee of Experts on Quality of Journalism in the Digital Age” at the Council of Europe.

❖ Kirstine Stewart, head of Shaping the Future of Media, Entertainment and Information. Previously, she was the Vice-President, Media, Twitter after launching the Twitter Canada office.

❖ Patricia Torres-Burd, Managing Director – Media Services, Media Development Investment Fund. Previously, she was the vice-president of UBC International.

*Founding members of the Forum on Information and Democracy: Digital Rights Foundation, Reporters
Without Borders (RSF), OBSERVACOM, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Human Rights Center at the
University of California, Berkeley, Open Government Partnership, Center for International Governance
Innovation, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Research ICT Africa, CIVICUS, Free Press Unlimited