In recent years, an authoritarian crackdown on media across multiple continents has closed so much space for news and information that only 13 percent of the world’s population now lives in a country with a free press.

At roughly the same time, democracies and developing democracies have witnessed the collapse of those business models that used to sustain journalism. This has left media outlets vulnerable to influence by special interests while further cementing an ongoing crisis of trust vis-à-vis the public.

Up against challenges that dwarf the resources of the entire philanthropic sector, the Open Society Foundations (OSF), one of the largest private philanthropies supporting journalism globally, must selectively and strategically fund media to produce a visible impact. Initiatives aiming to bolster free and independent media have represented a strategic priority for OSF grant-making since the foundation was established by Hungarian-American financier George Soros in 1979.

Credit by - GIJN

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