World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development: Global Report 2021/2022

Thirty years ago, journalists from across the African continent adopted the Windhoek Declaration at a seminar organized by UNESCO. This marked the beginning of a remarkable expansion of freedom, pluralism, and independence in news. That expansion owed much to the liberalization of media markets. However imperfectly, the fuel of advertising, copy sales, and subscriptions gave many outlets around the world the resources and independence they needed to bring audiences trustworthy information.

Today, that blueprint is in tatters.

The principles of the Windhoek Declaration were reaffirmed by the 2021 adoption of the Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good, which provides a framework for all actors of society to get involved. It also draws attention to the importance of working for media viability, transparency, and media and information literacy.

The Declaration serves as a beacon for concerted awareness-raising, advocacy, and capacity-building by all who value of journalism, yet recognize that it is also an endangered public good.

The troubling trends highlighted in this Report should be a call to redouble efforts.

In order for journalism to continue to function as a necessary public good, actions could include:

• new regulations for social media transparency,
• independent state subsidies to trustworthy news outlets,
• greater support for genuine public service media,
• increased media development assistance, and
• ramped up philanthropic investments.

All of these need guardrails and vigilance to protect standards of editorial independence and freedom of expression. For their part, journalists have to uphold the integrity of the profession in the face of pressure, and media outlets need to do better at digital innovation.