[Commlist] Forum on Information and Democracy report - A New Deal for Journalism

The Forum on Information and Democracy report - "A New Deal for Journalism"

As the Covid-19 pandemic undermines journalism at a growing pace, the 
Forum on Information and Democracy <https://informationdemocracy.org/> 
is publishing its recommendations under the title "A New Deal for 
Journalism". The report presents a plan to guarantee up to 0.1% of GDP a 
year into journalism to safeguard its social function for the future.

The New Deal would be a massive commitment both at the national and the 
international scale to ensure the social function of journalism. 
Christophe Deloire, chair of the Forum, explains: “The New Deal for 
Journalism consists of linking together various points that up to now 
have been separate, i.e. how the market is organised, the technological 
environment, and the work of journalists, with its working practices and 
ethics. This amounts to rebuilding journalism, not as the ‘media 
sector’, but as an essential element of freedom of opinion and 
expression, predicated on the right to information.”

The working group’s steering committee is chaired by Rasmus Kleis 
Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 
at the University of Oxford and is composed of 17 international 
specialists. The report was written by a team of rapporteurs supervised 
by Sameer Padania, an expert on the information ecosystem.

The report is structured around four fields of action: media freedom, 
the independence of journalism, a favourable economic climate and 
support for a sustainable digital model. Among the recommendations are:

  * Ensure full transparency of media ownership as part of broader
    measures on transparency, anti-corruption and financial integrity
  * Implement initiatives allowing quality journalism to be singled out
    and given a comparative advantage again, such as the Journalism
    Trust Initiative (JTI), to restore confidence among all stakeholders
  * Support and adopt international measures for taxing digital
    platforms, such as the global minimum corporate tax rate proposed by
    the OECD
  * Develop hybrid funding for the media, combining philanthropy and
    public support by establishing private-public blended financial
    instruments for commercial and non-profit media
  * Secure from governments a commitment to spending 1% of official
    development assistance on support for independent media and their
    enabling environment
  * Establish support mechanisms allowing citizens to support media
    organizations of their choice (such as media vouchers, tax relief on
    subscriptions, or income tax designations)
  * Structure the reflection on the impact of AI on journalism by
    including journalism and media as strategic sectors in national
    Artificial Intelligence strategies and roadmaps

Read more at 
https://informationdemocracy.org/working-groups/sustainability-of-journalism/

Or download the report directly from 
https://informationdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ForumID_New-Deal-for-Journalism_16Jun21.pdf


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