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May update
Welcome to the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s May update. This edition features highlights from the Foundation’s activities for World Press Freedom Day and an announcement on the winners of this year’s TrusLaw Awards.
World Press Freedom Day 2024: The rise of journalists forced into exile
The Foundation marked World Press Freedom Day earlier this month, raising awareness of how rising escalating authoritarianism and conflict are forcing growing numbers of journalists from their home countries.
We work to strengthen the resilience of independent media around the world through capacity-building activities, harnessing our combined journalism and legal expertise. In recent years, there has been an increasing need to leverage this experience to support Russian and Belarusian outlets who have been forced into exile to continue their operations.
Recognising that media in exile is a growing global trend, it is now our ambition to build on our work in this field. Our CEO, Antonio Zappulla has written for Project Syndicate this month, explaining how a rise in malicious lawfare and cyber-attacks on exiled journalists is threatening democracy and prompting the Foundation’s decision to scale up its support to other regions.
Our Director of Media Freedom, Will Church, also attended UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference in Chile to speak about the legal challenges faced by exiled journalists and the impact this has on media resilience and sustainability.
“There is consensus that media in exile is a phenomenon that is only getting worse, and it’s becoming a standard operating model for many newsrooms around the world. With rising authoritarianism and democracy at its most vulnerable since 1985, the road ahead looks harder still for independent media.
Time and time again, through our work to support exiled newsrooms, we are seeing that the success of media interventions is dependent on strong and holistic legal foundations. This was reinforced at UNESCO’s conference, and it was significant to be in Latin America to share insights from our work, as the conversation around the issue is really ramping up due to the deterioration of press freedoms in the region.”
~ Will Church, Director of Media Freedom
May highlights from across the Foundation
Human Rights
The Foundation is delighted to announce the winners of the 2024 TrustLaw Awards, established to celebrate the power of pro bono legal services to drive change.
TrustLaw is the largest pro bono legal network in the world, connecting lawyers with non-profits in need of free legal support.
From projects combatting workplace harassment to protecting press freedom, this year’s winners demonstrate pro bono at its most impactful and collaborative.
Inclusive Economies
In an exclusive opinion article for our digital news platform, Context, this month, Former President of Senegal, Macky Sall, highlights biases within the international financial system that are making capital access costly and restricted for countries like his own. It took a pandemic, and the economic implosion that followed, to make these flaws visible.
60% of low-income countries are at high risk of debt distress, often forcing them to cut essential public spending to meet debt repayments.
"Our goals are clear: to create a world where poverty has been eradicated and the planet preserved, and where vulnerable countries are better equipped to tackle crises. To do so, we aim to mobilise all sources of financing, which is why reform of the international financial system is top of the agenda."
~Macky Sall, Former President of Senegal
Media Freedom
In a new report made possible by core funding from the Foundation, the Reuters Institute of Journalism has surveyed what audiences think about the role of generative AI in news and society across six countries - Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA.
Key findings from the report show that while publishers may be more or less comfortable with how they are using generative AI to produce content, the public is not.
Across all age categories and countries, the findings show that people are more comfortable with news produced by human journalists than by AI.
Discover more in our focus areas:
This month we recommend
READ |Georgia’s foreign agent bill: an existential threat to democracy | Index on Censorship
READ | India votes: stories from the world’s biggest election | Context
LISTEN | How child labour in India makes the paving stones beneath our feet | The Guardian Audio Long Read
We are the corporate foundation of Thomson Reuters, the global news and information services company. We work to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies, and promote human rights.
