RightsCon: Marius Dragomir, John Masuku Discuss How Business Can Support Journalism

CMDS Director Marius Dragomir hosted a panel at RightsCon 2022 on how the business community can support a healthier info-sphere, with our Fellow John Masuku as one of the speakers.

The panel discussed the findings of research that started a year ago, conducted in 61 countries, aiming to identify and promote ethical models of business engagement to combat disinformation and support independent media. Other panelists included Ioana Avadani, President/CEE Researcher, Centre for Independent Journalism, Luis Miguel Carriedo, Columnist/Latin America Researcher, La Lista/ Zócalo Magazine and Bouziane Zaid, Associate Professor, University of Sharjah.

This panel was the first public presentation of the project, which, Marius Dragomir said, was a novelty in the field analyzing this type of business-media collaboration. He presented some of the global findings of the research. Over 40 relevant initiatives were identified in 27 countries. Journalistic content production and journalism awards seem to be the most common type of journalistic initiatives that received support. In-kind services appear to be the most common type of support offered by businesses.

John Masuku talked about the main findings of the research in Africa, Ioana Avadani covered Central and Eastern Europe, Luis Miguel Carriedo did Latin America and Bouziane Zaid researched the MENA region. They also discussed some of their favorite case studies and made recommendations on how to improve the field.