Promoting Media Freedom in a Time of Crisis

媒体自由和获取信息是开放社会的核心基本权利。它们也是可持续发展的重要推动力：媒体自由有助于减少腐败，追究政府责任，并增加社会包容性。2020年，这些关键权利受到了攻击。世界各地的政府都在骚扰和攻击记者，试图诋毁他们的工作，恐吓他们保持沉默。自2016年以来，全球新闻自由急剧下降。2019冠状病毒病大流行使情况更加复杂，许多国家利用危机作为打击新闻和言论自由的借口。本研究项目是对一项新的重大国际运动的紧急实时研究，该运动正在努力扭转这些趋势，防止对记者的袭击，并促进媒体自由。2019年，英国政府宣布媒体自由将成为其首要外交政策问题。当时的外交大臣杰里米·亨特发起了媒体自由运动（MFC），并任命阿迈勒·克鲁尼为英国媒体自由特使。MFC包括：1.一个由35个成员国组成的联盟，承诺游说反对那些伤害记者的人。该联盟由加拿大和英国共同主持。2.一个高级别法律的专家小组，制定促进媒体自由的工具。每年一度的全球媒体自由大会。一个工作队，帮助各国制定促进媒体自由的国家行动计划。由教科文组织管理的全球媒体保护基金。MFC是一个重要的出发点，从以前的工作，以支持媒体自由，因为它是国家主导的。这就提出了一些紧迫而重要的问题。MFC是否会重复广泛的非政府组织和多边组织的现有工作，这些组织几十年来一直致力于媒体自由问题？鉴于MFC目前的联合主席英国和加拿大有攻击和骚扰记者的主要贸易伙伴，这是否会造成限制MFC工作的紧张局势？它所要帮助的人是如何看待这场运动的？历史上支持媒体自由的努力一直植根于更广泛的意识形态斗争中，并与发起这些斗争的国家的自身利益密切相关。因此，我们也要问：全球南方的利益相关者是否将MFC视为一种媒体帝国主义？本研究项目评估MFC的工作，使用半结构化的采访，其所有的关键成员;人种学观察;和文件分析。这项研究是由一个跨越英国、苏丹和菲律宾的国际研究小组进行的。其主要目标是支持多边基金会的工作，并加强其行动的包容性和有效性。具体而言，它探讨了MFC包括全球南方利益攸关方的需求并将其列为优先事项的程度。然后，它将这些见解反馈给MFC，以帮助联盟开发他们未来的编程。其第二个相关目标是更普遍地确定媒体自由倡议的最佳做法。最后，它有助于外交政策和媒体帝国主义的学术知识。该项目将使一系列正在努力解决媒体自由问题的受援国直接受益。通过媒体自由“确保公众获取信息和保护基本自由”本身就是一项发展成果（联合国可持续发展目标16：10），但它也直接有助于其他发展成果。事实上，在大多数国家，自由和独立的媒体与腐败程度较低、民间社会较强、政治家更负责任、公共服务提供更好以及社会对妇女和少数群体的包容性更强相关。

Media freedom and access to information are fundamental rights at the heart of open societies. They are also important enablers of sustainable development: media freedom helps to reduce corruption, hold governments to account, and increase social inclusion. In 2020, these crucial rights are under attack. Governments around the world are harassing and attacking journalists, attempting to discredit their work and intimidate them into silence. There has been a sharp, global decline in press freedom since 2016. The COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded the situation, with many states using the crisis as an excuse to crack down on journalism and free speech.This research project is an urgent, real-time study of a major new international campaign that is working to reverse these trends, prevent attacks on journalists and promote media freedom. In 2019, the UK government announced that media freedom would become its number one foreign policy issue. Then Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, launched the Media Freedom Campaign (MFC) and appointed Amal Clooney as the UK's Special Envoy on Media Freedom. The MFC includes:1. A coalition of 35 member states that have pledged to lobby against those who harm journalists. The coalition is co-chaired by Canada and the UK. 2. A High-Level Panel of Legal Experts developing tools to promote media freedom.3. An annual Global Media Freedom conference.4. A task force that helps countries develop National Action Plans to promote Media Freedom.5. A Global Media Defence Fund administered by UNESCO. The MFC is an important departure from previous work to support media freedom because it is state-led. This raises a number of immediate and important questions. Will the MFC duplicate the existing work of the wide range of NGOs and multilateral organisations, which have been working on media freedom issues for decades? Given that MFC's current co-chairs, UK and Canada, have major trading partners that attack and harass journalists, will this create tensions that constrain the work of the MFC? How is the campaign perceived by those it seeks to help? Historical attempts to support media freedom have been embedded in wider ideological struggles, and closely tied to the self-interest of the states that initiate them. Therefore, we also ask; do Global South stakeholders perceive the MFC as a form of media imperialism? This research project evaluates the work of the MFC using semi-structured interviews with all of its key members; ethnographic observations; and document analysis. This research is conducted by an international research team spanning the UK, Sudan and the Philippines. Its primary objective is to support the work of the MFC and enhance the inclusiveness and effectiveness of its actions. Specifically, it explores the extent to which the MFC includes and prioritises the needs of Global South stakeholders. It then feeds these insights back to the MFC to help the Coalition develop their future programming. Its second, related goal, is to identify best practice for media freedom initiatives more generally. Finally, it contributes to academic knowledge about foreign policy and media imperialism. The project will directly benefit a range of aid-recipient countries that are grappling with Media Freedom issues. 'Ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms' through media freedom is a development outcome itself (UN Sustainable Development Goal 16:10), but it also directly contributes to other development outcomes. Indeed, a free and independent media correlates in most countries with lower corruption, stronger civil society, more accountable politicians, better provision of public services, and societies which are more inclusive of women and minorities.