Global Forum for Media Development
GFMD
The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) is an international network of over 200 journalism support and media development organisations working in around 70 countries.
ID: 406057138984-97
Lobbying Activity
Response to EU’s next long-term budget (MFF) – EU funding for external action
28 Nov 2025
The Global Forum for Media Development, a network of 215 member organisations across 80+ countries working to protect and promote media freedom and support journalism and media, submits the following joint recommendation, as the facilitator of the EU Media Advocacy Group. This document reflects a consolidated contribution from organisations working inside and outside the EU, committed to strengthening media freedom, information integrity and democratic resilience in partner countries. While we welcome the ambition of the Global Europe instrument to reinforce the EUs geopolitical and development objectives, the current proposal does not adequately recognise or resource independent journalism, media freedom, and information integrity as essential pillars of EU external action. Our submission calls for the explicit recognition of journalism as democratic and critical infrastructure; dedicated and long-term funding for public-interest media and resilient information ecosystems; strengthened crisis-response mechanisms; robust transparency, oversight, and anti-capture safeguards; and the integration of public-interest digital infrastructure, blended finance, and journalist-safety mechanisms into the instrument. These recommendations aim to ensure that Global Europe delivers the level of ambition required to counter foreign information manipulation and interference, address the structural decline of independent media, and reinforce democratic governance, accountability, and sustainable development in partner countries. The recommendations provided therefore set out the amendments needed to ensure that Global Europe fully aligns with EU and international commitments, including the UN Pact for the Future, the OECD Principles for Relevant and Effective Support to Media, and the Paris Declaration on Multilateral Action for Information Integrity and Independent Media. The full submission is attached in text format for your consideration.
Read full response25 Nov 2025
The Global Forum for Media Development, a network of 215 member organisations across 80+ countries, welcomes the ambition of AgoraEU and submits complementary remarks in addition to the detailed recommendations provided. This submission has been prepared jointly through an informal coalition of organisations working across journalism support, media development, media freedom, digital rights, and the wider democracy and human-rights ecosystem. The document sets out our collective recommendations to ensure that AgoraEU delivers long-term, scalable, and systemic support for journalism and the wider public-interest information ecosystem. In line with the OECD Principles for Effective Support to Media, we call for dedicated multi-annual and core funding for independent, investigative, local, community, and cross-border media; robust editorial-independence safeguards; investment in public-interest digital infrastructure; and financial instruments that catalyse private capital without undermining editorial autonomy. Our submission also emphasises the need to strengthen media literacy as a cross-cutting resilience pillar, with targeted support for underserved communities, innovative audience-engagement tools, and AI-supported verification. We highlight the importance of dedicated funding for journalistic safetyincluding legal and digital protection, emergency relocation, psychosocial support, and anti-SLAPP enforcementand call for sustained support for fact-checking organisations as an integral part of the news ecosystem. Multi-annual investment in cross-border fact-checking networks, verification tools, and methodologies is essential to strengthen information integrity. The full submission is attached in pdf format for your consideration.
Read full responseResponse to European Democracy Shield
26 May 2025
Europes Last Chance to Fix the Broken Digital Markets and Protect Journalism and Democracy As the European Commission prepares the European Democracy Shield, the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) emphasises that defending democracy must begin with protecting journalism. The survival of independent, public-interest media is no longer guaranteed in Europes digital environment. Journalismessential to democratic resiliencehas become structurally devalued, financially undermined, and algorithmically marginalised. If the EU is serious about safeguarding democracy, it must act now to correct the systemic failures that continue to erode the medias role in society. The current digital business model prioritises virality over veracity. Built on surveillance-based advertising, automated amplification, and monopolistic control, this system incentivises disinformation, floods the public sphere with low-quality content, and deprioritises credible journalism. Investigations have shown that major tech platforms monetise and amplify misleading content, while legitimate mediaespecially small, investigative, and local outletsstruggle for visibility and revenue. The U.S. Federal Courts ruling against Googles monopolistic practices in the ad market, particularly through its DoubleClick acquisition, further demonstrates how market dominance has distorted the digital information ecosystem, locking out publishers and consolidating power over what citizens see and read. The consequences for journalism are severe. A growing share of public discourse is shaped by algorithms optimised for engagement, not accuracy. GFMDs Tech and Journalism Mechanism (T&JM) has documented numerous cases of unjustified content demotion, demonetisation, and opaque moderation disproportionately affecting independent media. In Ukraine, Moldova, Nepal, and other regions, publishers have reported unexplained de-platforming and traffic collapses, with Ukrainian media losing significant Facebook visibility since the onset of war. These trends amount to an economic stranglehold on journalismone that threatens the sustainability of quality reporting and leaves the public vulnerable to manipulation. Journalism is also constrained by the high cost of digital infrastructure. Investigative and data-driven reporting increasingly depends on cloud computing and AI tools, but access to these technologies is financially prohibitive for many outlets. The bundling of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) with proprietary AI models by dominant providers creates lock-in and price inflation, making it harder for media to process large datasets securely and affordably. GFMD and OCCRP surveys show that even modest-sized newsrooms face tens of thousands of euros in monthly infrastructure costswhile hyperscalers impose opaque pricing, exit fees, and minimal transparency. These systemic imbalances put journalism at a crossroads. The emergence of the Journalism Cloud Alliance (JCA) is one attempt to respond collectivelyoffering shared infrastructure and collaborative capacity-buildingbut it cannot succeed without public policy support. The European Democracy Shield must go beyond generalised commitments to democracy and explicitly prioritise journalism. This includes investing in media infrastructure, rebalancing ad markets to support credible publishers, and enforcing legislation that upholds media freedom and transparency in platform governance. Democracy cannot function without independent journalismand journalism cannot survive under current digital conditions without systemic reform. The European Democracy Shield must be a turning point: a strong, well-funded commitment to restoring journalisms place in our democracies and fixing the broken infrastructure that now threatens it. Without this, Europe may soon find itself defending democratic institutions without the very media that give them meaning, scrutiny, and life.
Read full responseMeeting with Jordi Solé (Member of the European Parliament)
11 Oct 2023 · Chat control in EU
Meeting with Marie Frenay (Cabinet of Vice-President Věra Jourová)
24 May 2023 · European Media Freedom act
Response to European Media Freedom Act
23 Jan 2023
The Global Forum for Media Developemnt (GFMD) is aware that independent media, which provides an essential public service, has been declining for nearly a decade. The collapse of the traditional journalistic business model, growing political polarisation, democratic backsliding, and the added burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed to a potential "media extinction event," as the UN Secretary-General has warned. A well-functioning independent media system is critical to long-term social and economic developmentthe bedrock of peaceful, prosperous societies. For that reason, GFMD supports the European Media Freedom Act's goal of strengthening the free and pluralistic media system, as well as its commitment to protect journalists and editorial independence within the European Union. Nonetheless, in order to ensure that the text is as robust and effective as possible, we consider that the following areas must be addressed within the text. See feedback document attached.
Read full responseMeeting with Margrethe Vestager (Executive Vice-President) and Committee to Protect Journalists and International Press Institute
29 Oct 2020 · State Aid in Hungary