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Impact of U.S. Government Funding Suspension on Independent Media in Lebanon

Widad Jarbouh

Beirut: Samir Kassir Foundation (2025), 9 pp.

"The January 23, 2025 suspension of U.S. government funding has placed Lebanon’s independent media outlets under significant strain. Although some organizations were unaffected, many face heightened financial uncertainty, reduced operational capacity, and the potential for layoffs. The Samir Kassi ... r Foundation conducted a survey of 18 outlets to assess the scope of this impact, examining factors such as organizational size, primary funding sources, financial losses, and the specific measures being taken to address budget shortfalls. Key Findings: Mixed impact: Of the 18 organizations surveyed, 6 reported no adverse effects, 8 indicated direct financial and operational challenges, and 4 did not respond. Funding sources: Government grants remain the most common revenue source; however, 4 outlets also rely on advertising, subscription fees, or other production-related streams. The overall decline in available grant opportunities has intensified competition for funding and increased uncertainty. Operational challenges: 7 outlets have scaled back content production and restructured operations (e.g., implementing remote work, reducing salaries or benefits). 4 outlets project potential layoffs, albeit affecting fewer than five employees each. Short-term needs: Participants identified employee salaries and essential operating costs as top priorities. Many emphasized the importance of pursuing new grants, forging partnerships, and exploring revenue-generating activities (e.g., marketing services or AI-based tools). Psychosocial support for employees and enhanced security measures also surfaced as pressing concerns. Conclusion: The abrupt funding cut, compounded by Lebanon’s broader economic and political turbulence, has left smaller outlets especially vulnerable, limiting their ability to diversify revenue and threatening their long-term viability. Without adequate replacement funding, the diversity of Lebanon’s media landscape could shrink, and politically affiliated outlets may gain greater influence. This underscores the need for alternative financial avenues and supportive frameworks to preserve the independent voices essential to media freedom in Lebanon." (https://www.skeyesmedia.org) more

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Long-Term Financial Support for Ukrainian Media and Journalists

Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) (2023), 4 pp.

"To ensure that Ukrainian media move from mere survival to long-term vitality, we propose a comprehensive strategy encompassing the following five pillars: 1. Innovative funding mechanisms; 2. Prioritisation of local-level media; 3. Constructive enabling environment; 4. Professional development; 5. ... more

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Review of the Funding Landscape for Media Development Actors in Lebanon

Michael Randall

Brussels: Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); Samir Kassir Foundation; International Media Support (IMS) (2022), 27 pp.

"[...] there has been a growing recognition that traditional approaches to media development are struggling to deliver the anticipated results. This acknowledgement has led some donors to conduct far-ranging needs assessments in order to better understand the priorities of their beneficiaries as wel ... l as the environmental constraints that have blunted the impact of media development initiatives in the past. At the same time, the recipients of donor funding are increasingly asking to have a say in determining the kind of support that is provided by the international community. They say that programmes should be driven by demand rather than by donor assumptions or thematic priorities that do not fully reflect the situation on the ground. The calls for proposals reviewed during this study suggest that donors are responding to these concerns. There is clear evidence of concerted efforts to make funding more accessible to local organisations and to move the centre of gravity away from international partners. Although some programmes remain out of the reach of local players due to the size of their budgets or their regional scope, they often include very significant sub-granting programmes aimed at helping local media to become viable businesses and at supporting the production of public interest content. The themes embraced by the calls also reflect the urgent need within the media sector to build resilience to economic shocks, political bullying and disinformation campaigns. There is a marked insistence on promoting usable skills such as factchecking and mobile journalism, accompanied by provisions for ensuring that training is delivered by “media professionals as opposed to professional trainers with minimal or no experience in the media industry”. These are positive developments which, to a large extent, have been driven by sustained dialogue between stakeholders and far-ranging needs assessments. Of particular note in Lebanon is the unprecedented success of the Media Recovery Fund, initiated by the Samir Kassir Foundation, which marks a dramatic shift in the implementer-donor relationship. There is a strong possibility that this approach could form the focus of future coordination efforts and could, in time, serve as the cornerstone for a national media development strategy. It could also become a blueprint for other countries in the region." (Executive summary) more

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Media Assistance in Burma’s Reform Decade

Jane Madlyn McElhone

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2022), 8 pp.

"Despite the grim outlook, media development efforts in Burma between 2010 and 2020 may be instructive not only for donors pondering the way forward, but also for media assistance efforts in other countries in transition. This report, part of the Center for International Media Assistance’s “Medi ... more

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Is Media Assistance Obsolete? A Practice-Based Perspective on the Potential for Digital Technologies to Achieve Media Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Daire Higgins

Dublin: Doctoral Thesis Technological University Dublin (2020), 417 pp.

"This thesis examines the impact on the Media Assistance sector of the arrival of digital technologies into the ‘information ecosystems’ in which it operates. Whereas historically in Media Assistance, broadcast media and the press have been the preferred (or available) media for achieving develo ... more

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Whispered Support: Two Decades of International Aid for Independent Journalism and Free Expression

Jane Madlyn McElhone, Lisa Brooten

In: Myanmar Media in Transition: Legacies, Challenges and Change

Lisa Brooten, Jane Madlyn McElhone, Gayathry Venkiteswaran (eds.)

Singapore: ISEAS (2019), pp. 95-130

"This chapter is drawn primarily from Jane Madlyn McElhone's thirteen years of in-field experience in Myanmar and other nations in transition, as well as key informant interviews she conducted in 2017 and 2018 [...] Our discussion is driven by a series of interlinked questions. Who were the key medi ... more

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Journalism Grantmaking: New Funding, Models and Partnerships to Sustain and Grow the Field

Sarah Armour-Jones

Philadelphia, PA: Media Impact Funders (2019), 13 pp.

"Since 2009, 3,106 funders gave $1.7 billion in journalism-related grants [in the U.S.]. Of that, $306 million was directed toward the Newseum. Excluding grants to the Newseum, the top 9 journalism funders to U.S.-based organizations have given $550 million, via 1,776 grants since 2009. Of the $1.7 ... more

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Media Constrained by Context: International Assistance and the Transition to Democratic Media in the Western Balkans
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Kristina Irion, Tarik Jusic (eds.)

Budapest: Central European University Press (2018), xiii, 346 pp.

"This books draws a comparative balance of twenty years' international media assistance in the five countries of the Western Balkans. The central question was what happens to imported models when they are transposed onto the newly evolving media systems of transitional societies. Albania, Bosnia-Her ... more

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A Call for Effective Support to Syrian Independent Media as a Key Component in Mitigating and Resolving the Syrian Conflict

Brussels: Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) (2015), 14 pp.

"Experience in conflicts, in former Yugoslavia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past twenty years has shown that citizens with access to reliable, professional, and independent news and information must be a key element in any effort to support a sustainable resolution to conflict ... more

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Media Assistance in Serbia: Achievements and Challenges

Davor Marko

Sarajevo: Analitika – Center for Social Research (2014), 8 pp.

"While in 1990s media assistance efforts focused on ensuring the survival of independent media outlets under the authoritarian rule of the Miloševiæ regime, the scope of the assistance expanded after the regime collapsed in 2000, to address a range of issues, such as legal reforms, the establishme ... more

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Aide internationale au secteur des médias du Burundi : Analyse de l’efficience et des effets pervers induits. Cas pratique : Analyse du Plan d’Action Commun d’Appui aux Médias. Deuxième génération

Brice Ryckaert

Haute Ecole de la Province de Namur (2014), 35 pp.

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Role of Media in Fostering Democracy in Afghanistan 2001 to 2013

Norma Rahmanzai Isaczai

Master Thesis University of Leicester (2014), 103 pp.

"This dissertation is a study about the growth and development of media in Afghanistan and its role and contribution to national and international collective efforts to build a modern, stable and democratic Afghanistan in the last decade. In pursuing my dissertation, I have examined the Afghan media ... more

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Media Reforms Through Intervention: International Media Assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tarik Jusic, Nidžara Ahmetaševic

Sarajevo: Analitika – Center for Social Research (2013), 71 pp.

"The case of BiH demonstrates that media reform is a slow, time-consuming process, which is closely related to the consolidation of democratic institutions that foster free media. The four case studies presented here amply demonstrate a deep tension between externally-driven reform initiatives and t ... more

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Media Reforms in Turbulent Times: The Role of Media Assistance in the Establishment of Independent Media Institutions in Serbia

Davor Marko

Sarajevo: Analitika – Center for Social Research (2013), 60 pp.

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Limited Assistance for Limited Impact: International Media Assistance in Albania

Ilda Londo

Sarajevo: Analitika – Center for Social Research (2013), 62 pp.

"Overall, international media assistance has been very important in shaping the current media landscape, though it has by no means been the decisive factor. The complete legal reform in the media and establishment of its main institutions has seen the continuous involvement of international actors. ... more

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South Africa’s Media 20 Years After Apartheid

Libby Lloyd

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2013), 54 pp.

"South Africa’s news media has become, in the post-1994 democratic era, among the most concentrated in the world, affecting the quality of its content and the sales of its newspapers. A significant decrease in international development support, and post-1994 changes to the nature of that support, ... more

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Libya Media Transition: Heading to the Unknown

Fatima El-Issawi

London: Department of Media and Communications (media@LSE) London School of Economics Polis (2013), 74 pp.

"Libyan media’s deficiencies are vast and cover all facets of production. For one, the media industry’s decades-long isolation from the Arab and international markets poses a particular challenge to its reconstruction by comparison to the transitional media industries in Egypt and Tunisia. Media ... more

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Limited Assistance for Limited Impact: The Case of International Media Assistance in Albania

Ilda Londo

Tirana: Albanian Media Institute (2013), 7 pp.

"Overall, the scope of media assistance in Albania has been rather ambitious, aiming to reform all key segments of the media sector. It is therefore not surprising that the results have been mixed at best. The important elements of the regulatory framework have been put in place, but the reforms aim ... more

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Assisting Media Democratization After Low-Intensity Conflict: The Case of Macedonia

Tamara Dimitrijevska-Markoski, Zhidas Daskalovski

Sarajevo; Skopje: Analitika – Center for Social Research; Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) (2013), 59 pp.

"Bearing in mind the political and economic circumstances in the early stages of development of a democratic Macedonia, international donors played an important role in providing a vibrant media landscape including legal framework and relevant institutions. Donors in Macedonia engaged in a number of ... more

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Starting from Scratch: The Role of Media Assistance in the Establishment of Independent Media Institutions in Kosovo

Naser Miftari

Sarajevo: Analitika – Center for Social Research (2013), 59 pp.

"In conclusion, it should be reiterated that the use of the Western liberal media models as a guiding model for the media set up in Kosovo might have been too ambitious a goal. It gave too much credit to the cultural ethos at the time, assuming it to be an environment in which a liberal media sector ... more

Media Constrained by Context: International Assistance and the Transition to Democratic Media in the Western Balkans Top Insights

Media Constrained by Context: International Assistance and the Transition to Democratic Media in the Western Balkans
Top Insights