Promoting Media Freedom in a Time of Crisis

Media freedom and access to information are fundamental rights at the heart of open societies. They are also important enablers of sustainable development: media freedom helps to reduce corruption, hold governments to account, and increase social inclusion. In 2020, these crucial rights are under attack. Governments around the world are harassing and attacking journalists, attempting to discredit their work and intimidate them into silence. There has been a sharp, global decline in press freedom since 2016. The COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded the situation, with many states using the crisis as an excuse to crack down on journalism and free speech.

This research project is an urgent, real-time study of a major new international campaign that is working to reverse these trends, prevent attacks on journalists and promote media freedom. In 2019, the UK government announced that media freedom would become its number one foreign policy issue. Then Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, launched the Media Freedom Campaign (MFC) and appointed Amal Clooney as the UK's Special Envoy on Media Freedom. The MFC includes:
1. A coalition of 35 member states that have pledged to lobby against those who harm journalists. The coalition is co-chaired by Canada and the UK.
2. A High-Level Panel of Legal Experts developing tools to promote media freedom.
3. An annual Global Media Freedom conference.
4. A task force that helps countries develop National Action Plans to promote Media Freedom.
5. A Global Media Defence Fund administered by UNESCO.

The MFC is an important departure from previous work to support media freedom because it is state-led. This raises a number of immediate and important questions. Will the MFC duplicate the existing work of the wide range of NGOs and multilateral organisations, which have been working on media freedom issues for decades? Given that MFC's current co-chairs, UK and Canada, have major trading partners that attack and harass journalists, will this create tensions that constrain the work of the MFC? How is the campaign perceived by those it seeks to help? Historical attempts to support media freedom have been embedded in wider ideological struggles, and closely tied to the self-interest of the states that initiate them. Therefore, we also ask; do Global South stakeholders perceive the MFC as a form of media imperialism?

This research project evaluates the work of the MFC using semi-structured interviews with all of its key members; ethnographic observations; and document analysis. This research is conducted by an international research team spanning the UK, Sudan and the Philippines. Its primary objective is to support the work of the MFC and enhance the inclusiveness and effectiveness of its actions. Specifically, it explores the extent to which the MFC includes and prioritises the needs of Global South stakeholders. It then feeds these insights back to the MFC to help the Coalition develop their future programming. Its second, related goal, is to identify best practice for media freedom initiatives more generally. Finally, it contributes to academic knowledge about foreign policy and media imperialism.

The project will directly benefit a range of aid-recipient countries that are grappling with Media Freedom issues. 'Ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms' through media freedom is a development outcome itself (UN Sustainable Development Goal 16:10), but it also directly contributes to other development outcomes. Indeed, a free and independent media correlates in most countries with lower corruption, stronger civil society, more accountable politicians, better provision of public services, and societies which are more inclusive of women and minorities.