Reflections from the M20 summit: Information integrity needs local solutions, global collaboration

As someone heading an organisation whose raison d’étre is to support independent media in some of the most challenging environments in the world, I am witnessing the huge challenges independent media are facing every day. Yet I also want to take the opportunity while I am here in Johannesburg to spotlight some of the solutions we have at hand, and the firm actions we have to take as a global community of media and media support organisations.

At a time when people’s trust in governments’ ability to bring about change is limited, we need new and strong alliances and bodies able to make change happen. M20 is a very promising one.

A couple of points are coming out clearly for me during my presence at the M20 Summit:

— First, we need a strategic vision and a long-term perspective, and we need to bring national, regional and relevant global actors together to push for policy and media development change.

— Second, we must find new ways of acting together, boosting, learning and connecting good practices already out there. Seeking complementarity where it makes sense and act to ensure that media systems can remain viable and resilient.

Change happens – including positive change – at times at a very local level. Change that can be scaled. In Tanzania, the country’s homegrown social media platform Jamii Forums is outperforming Facebook. There are many other such initiatives in Africa and in other parts of the world, which take public service seriously and are gaining public trust.

The fact that these initiatives do what many government institutions, nationally and globally, have failed to accomplish – ensuring accountability and representation – is extremely encouraging. They cut across continents and are generating real change. M20 can become a powerful framework for action and results at a national level and a connector of existing initiatives.

One point needs specific and urgent attention: The deep financial challenges that independent media are experiencing globally at a time when overseas development assistance has dropped, the US has pulled out and media business models are broken.

In looking for solutions, we must focus on national leadership, collaborative coalitions regionally and globally, and be guided by a concrete and action-oriented framework.

The Media Viability Manifesto group – of which my organisation is part – constitutes one such new initiative. There are several others.

The bottom line is of course that if we do want to engage the G20 and also media-friendly donors, we have to be very clear and educate governments that independent media is a key antidote to disinformation and a precondition for political stability and economic growth.

More specifically:
— We want media-friendly countries to engage in the push for scalable blended finance models.
— We should leverage global, regional and national private philanthropies to provide risk willing capital. The notion of public-private partnership is highly important.
— We need new disbursement structures like local, national and regional funds for public interest journalism. Somethingthat is already underway here in South Africa.
— We have to incubate and scale innovation models and unlock the potential for local financing models.

Such initiatives should be locally identified, locally owned and activated and should incentivise more local capital actors where they exist. And they are more likely to succeed if media is working collaboratively. In Indonesia, Philippines, Lebanon and Zimbabwe, for example, media and media organisations are stepping up efforts to build effective entry points that make sense in local contexts.

In conclusion, it appears that local capital offers a more resilient alternative to donor funding, reducing dependence on external sources. This type of financing is better attuned to the cultural, economic and political realities of each market, ensuring funding is not only available but also appropriately targeted. And it can bring all good efforts across the finishing line. That last stretch should ensure that initiatives has a practical, operational and accountable structure at national level. This is the foundation for making information integrity viable.