Defending Independent Media: A Comprehensive Analysis of Aid Flows

"Is financial support to media development increasing, falling, or holding steady? What kinds of approaches and issues are being favored by the governments, multilateral agencies, and private donors that provide assistance to media development? Which countries and regions receive the most support?"

Because of attacks on the media and because, according to Freedom House's global index, press freedom has fallen to its lowest point in 13 years, the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) set out "to sift through a database with thousands of projects to more accurately identify flows going to media development....This report reviews and measures how donors are supporting media and free expression as part of their overseas aid budgets."

Data from DAC participants (donors who report their aid to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) database) and other bilateral media development donors were analysed, along with a separate analysis of data from China contributed by AidData. Analysis of the data shows that for the six years from 2010 to 2015, DAC participants and other bilateral donors (excluding only China) together funded media development to the tune of $2.7 billion (USD), or an average $454 million (USD) per year over the six-year period.

Investment from China, nearly $2.1 billion worth of China-financed projects in the media sectors of developing countries, was not categorised as strictly support to "media development". "China tends to support ICT infrastructure and government media rather than freedom of the press, journalist and media outlet independence, or media that hold governments to account. China also delivers its support to the sector primarily through loans...."

Key findings include the following:

• "Media assistance represented on average just .3 percent of total official development aid (ODA) between 2010 and 2015.
• Donor flows to media are small, but are holding steady.
• China is an increasingly active player in terms of global media aid flows, although its interventions are largely focused on developing infrastructure and take the form of loans rather than development grants."

Five graphs in the web report show: donor allocated support for media from 2010 to 2015; the percentage this represents of total aid; bilateral versus multilateral aid; loan instrument types; and channels for assistance. Shifts in approaches and strategies are identified and exemplified. For example, Ukrainian journalists were provided training to develop a virtual platform to increase their electorate's knowledge of corruption. In another example, a school of journalism was established in Rwanda. The range of approaches below and funding distribution among them are charted in figure 6. Approach strategies include:

1. Training;
2. Organisational development and management;
3. Policies and institutions;
4. Financial support for news production;
5. Research on media and systems;
6. Mixed media approaches; and
7. Media development (unspecified).

Donor priorities include: 1) investigative journalism; 2) access to information; 3) journalist training; 4) freedom of information; and 5) direct assistance to media outlets. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 appear to receive funding more or less matching donor concern, but support is not aligned with demand, as stated here.

As for future horizons, questions arise on donor financial commitment compared to other sectors of development, their support for the values of good governance and democracy, and support for independent news media in developing countries. For example, of large international broadcasting grants, "about 10 percent are flows to developing-country governments, mostly in the form of support to hardware and media infrastructure." Areas still not receiving attention are, in particular, research and media literacy. However, "...funding levels appear to be holding steady and there are healthy sums being channeled toward what appear to be genuine efforts to enhance governance and democracy and freedom of expression," though country-level demand exceeds funding support available.