MIC Newsletter - April 10th, 2023 |
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Left to right: Kiran Maharaj, President, Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC)
Ro Tucci, ADAA, Democracy, Rights and Governance, USAID
Teresa Hutson, CVP, Technology and Corporate Responsibility, Microsoft
Jeanne Bourgault, President, Internews
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MIC on Panel for launch of Media Viability Accelerator at the Summit for Democracy
March 27, 2023 - Internews, Microsoft Corp. and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new public-private partnership to develop a Media Viability Accelerator to help independent news outlets become more financially sustainable. The announcement, made in advance of the 2023 Summit for Democracy, illustrates a shared commitment among government, business and civil society to shore up democracy’s fourth estate.
“Media around the globe face a dual threat: repression and bankruptcy,” said Jeanne Bourgault, president and CEO of Internews, a nonprofit that supports independent media in 100 countries. “Thousands of media outlets have closed around the world in the past decade due to disruption of traditional media business models. In service of democracy, the Media Viability Accelerator will help reverse that trend by assisting media to survive and become more competitive.”
The Media Viability Accelerator is a web-based platform that will help news media become more financially sustainable by accessing solutions and market insights to inform effective business strategies. Participating media outlets will, free of charge, learn from a community of peers, access a multilingual tool that visualizes media performance data, and receive actionable daily alerts based on thousands of market and media sources.
“Independent journalism is essential to a healthy and vibrant democracy, but technology has unfortunately eroded traditional ad-based business models,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president. “Our hope is that this AI-powered data aggregation and visualization tool will offer media outlets the kind of market intelligence they need to be financially successful.”
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Left to right: Kiran Maharaj, President, Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC)
Jodie Ginsberg, President, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Jeanne Bourgault, President, Internews
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In a three-way memorandum of understanding that underlies the partnership:
• USAID agreed to support the development and growth of the Media Viability Accelerator platform, and set and monitor high-level objectives for the project.
• Microsoft will contribute expertise in data analysis, visualization dashboards, cloud services and AI and agreed to provide in-kind technical support to develop and sustain the Media Viability Accelerator platform.
• Internews, in concert with other media development organizations, agreed to register up to 500 media outlet users within six months, with a focus on media from low-resource countries and emerging democracies.
Other organizations supporting the effort include Free Press for Eastern Europe, Free Press Unlimited, Global Forum for Media Development, IREX, SembraMedia and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Independent media is both a public good and a private enterprise, but it has faced significant financial headwinds of late,” said Samantha Power, USAID administrator. “The U.S. government will use every tool at our disposal to support independent media, including by drawing on the expertise of our partners in the private sector. The Media Viability Accelerator is a model public-private partnership that will help keep independent media outlets around the world financially sustainable so they can continue their vital work.”
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MIC FOI HELP DESK FULLY OPERATIONAL
A milestone in Freedom of Information (FOI) and Access to Information has been laid in the Pan-Caribbean region with the launch of the MIC Freedom of Information Help Desk and Advocacy tool kit. The Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) announced the initiative virtually on Monday, at the second seminar of the four-part workshop series on FOI and ATI.
The Help Desk is a cloud-based, secure platform for journalists, civil society organisations and private individuals to submit their FOI / ATI requests to MIC. These requests would be reviewed by MIC’s support staff who will provide guidance to and advise applicants on how to address denials, implement follow up actions and any other course of action. MIC guarantees strict confidentiality as we commit to ensuring the safety of individuals contact information and related correspondence.
The Help Desk is one aspect of MIC’s FOI project which seeks to monitor and document press freedom violations in the English-speaking Pan-Caribbean region; provide advisory legal opinions to journalists when this freedom is being violated or is in danger; be a strong voice of advocacy for the protection of freedom of the press by providing recommendations for policy framework and legislation for Freedom of Information and Access To Information; and provide a coordinating mechanism to help enforce the right to freedom of the press by working with civil society and key stakeholders to develop recommendations and provide public information. To assist with the use of the Help Desk, MIC has also introduced The Advocacy Toolkit. This was created as a guide and resource for journalists seeking to do FOI/ATI requests and using the Help Desk. Written by journalist and lawyer Dionne Jackson-Miller, this Advocacy Tool Kit is a repository of information which includes research points, letter templates and lists of support organisations.
President of MIC, Ms. Kiran Maharaj, in underscoring the timely launch of both resources, pointed to need for such tools, “the result of the necessity for journalists in the region to have better support and advice in an era where investigative journalism underpins our democracy and where the propagation of disinformation plagues our societies.”
The Help Desk and Advocacy Toolkit are available at www.mediainstituteofthecaribbean.com and submissions are now open. The FOI project is funded by UK AID.
Visit this link or click on the image below for tutorial on how to submit FOI/ATI requests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZD-ExkBixs
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Harvey Panka of Suriname - elected President. |
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ACM elects new executive 2023-2025
The Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) on Sunday 12th March, 2023 met in Georgetown, Guyana at its 11th Biennial General Assembly and elected a new executive that will function between 2023-2025.
Mr Harvey Panka of Suriname was uncontested for President.
Ms Nazima Raghubir of Guyana was elected First Vice President (Finance).
Mr Milton Walker of Jamaica was elected 2nd Vice President.
Mr Denis Chabrol of Guyana was elected General Secretary.
Ms Soyni Grey of Trinidad and Tobago was elected Asst General Secretary.
Ms Myriam Malmin of Martinque and Andre Huie of St Kitts and Nevis were elected floor members.
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Some 22 persons from 12 regional associations and focal points attended the ACM’s 11th Biennial General Assembly where country reports were tabled and discussed. Two resolutions were tabled, one resolution was referred to a Special Meeting of the ACM while the other was passed to widen geographical representation.
The new ACM executive will continue to address issues of press freedom and professional development of the media as well as further enhancing our relationship with international freedom of expression organisations.
The ACM is also planning to continue working closely with the Media Institute of the Caribbean in the delivery of training programmes and other opportunities for journalists across the Caribbean.
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Photo Credit: EU-LAC Foundation |
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MIC presence at EU-LAC Journalists Forum
MIC Vice-President, Wesley Gibbings, was the lone Caribbean media professional in attendance at the II EU-LAC Journalists Forum, held in Stockholm, Sweden on March 23 and 24.
Press professionals from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the European Union (EU) exchanged views on the situation they face in both regions and the possibilities for collaboration.
The participants also shared reflections and proposals for the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), scheduled for July 2023.
The Forum, organised by the EU-LAC Foundation in collaboration with the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) and the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies (NILAS) of the University of Stockholm, was attended by 25 professionals from 15 European, Latin American and Caribbean countries, who work with print, radio, online and independent media platforms.
This meeting was a continuation of the I EU-LAC Journalists Forum, held in 2020 in Costa Rica which was attended by Jamaican journalist Earl Moxam and Gibbings.
During the opening session, which was also attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Stockholm and students from Stockholm University, the Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation, Dr Adrián Bonilla, emphasised that the Forum offers "a space to promote journalistic work on bi-regional issues and relations and provide opportunities for the development of collaborative practices."
Likewise, Keisal Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the country holding the Pro Tempore Presidency of CELAC, highlighted the importance of the meeting in bringing together professionals from both regions and strengthening the bi-regional agenda.
At the end of the event, Gibbings said it had been a “very useful platform for the sharing of information and experiences that vary widely not only between the two regions, but intra-regionally as well.”
He related to other participants the work of the Media Institute and the Association of Caribbean Media Workers.
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INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP 2023
MIC presents our signature programme, Investigative Journalism Fellowship 2023. Topics include Documentary Making, Storyboarding, Data Journalism, Digital Security and so much more.
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ON THE VIABILITY OF CARIBBEAN MEDIA
- By Wesley Gibbings
This is part of a series on platforms and the press published jointly by CJR and the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy.
Chronically vulnerable to small market size, narrow advertising bases, brittle economies, and high susceptibility to natural disasters, the Caribbean media sector was initially keen, in the 1990s, to embrace digital technologies—with a caveat.
In 2019’s prepandemic Trinidad and Tobago, the chairman of the English-speaking Caribbean’s largest business conglomerate, Norman Sabga, sounded the warning that online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter had already considerably undermined indigenous media viability and needed to be regulated and taxed. There was little resonance of that view even within the media community.
By then, there already was evidence that the relatively vibrant media markets of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Barbados were experiencing diminished revenues from stagnant audience numbers, depressed economic conditions, and the challenge of rising online advertising at the expense of traditional avenues.
A growing share of already shrinking advertising revenue had already moved to online platforms, Facebook and Google Ads in particular. In Trinidad and Tobago, a 2018 roundtable of media managers estimated that more than 15 percent of all advertising had already migrated to the big tech platforms.
The Trinidad and Tobago Publishers Association is due to review the current scenario in the latter phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is evidence that the cuts have deepened.
In Jamaica, it is estimated that as much as 25 percent of direct advertising revenue, nationally, is being diverted to the platforms—Facebook in particular.
Media viability has thus emerged as the sector’s key concern in the face of ensuing closures, contractions, consolidations, lethargic embrace of effective online prospects, and the diverting of advertising revenue to non-national entities.
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NEWS FROM THE REGION
The Media Institute of the Caribbean rounds up major stories about journalists and the media industry from around the region.
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Barbados Today: The potential late payment of salaries at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has the attention of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) and the Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM).
News Room: The Guyana Press Association (GPA) on Monday night criticised the organisers of the Guyana Energy Conference in what it says are attempts “to constrain the media’s free access to delegates and other participants of the event scheduled for February 14 to 17, 2023.”
ABC News: Suspected gangs have kidnapped another Haitian journalist as colleagues demanded his release, a government office announced Wednesday. The journalist was identified by the Office of Citizen Protection as Jean Thony Lorthé, who works for Radio Vision 2000.
Human Rights Watch: A French investigative journalist who exposed sexual abuse accusations against Yves Jean-Bart, the former Haiti football federation president, is facing a defamation lawsuit by Jean-Bart, Human Rights Watch said today.
SIPIAPA: An executive and radio host kidnapped in the middle of this month in Haiti, was released last Saturday the 25th after spending eight days in captivity. Lebrun Saint-Hubert, president and general director of community radio "2000", was released after paying a ransom according to local media.
Antigua Observer: Andre Huie, President of the Media Association of St Kitts and Nevis, has been elected to the executive of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM). On Sunday 12th March 2023 St. Kitts and Nevis was represented at the ACM’s 11th Biennial General Assembly in Guyana by SKN Media Association’s 2nd Vice President, Jermine Abel.
Culturu: De Associatie van Caribische Mediawerkers (ACM) wordt nu geleid door Harvey Panka. Nita Ramcharan en Edward Troon mochten dienen als vice president. Nu is Harvey Panka gekozen als voorzitter, na een zittingstermijn als secretaris in het vorig bestuur. Het is de eerste keer dat Suriname gekozen is als voorzitter. Tijdens de elfde tweejaarlijkse algemene vergadering in Guyana is een nieuw bestuur gekozen afgelopen zondag.
LOOP: The Association of Surinamese Journalists (ASJ) has strongly condemned the looting, vandalism and attacks on journalists during and after the protests against the Surinamese government on Friday.
Waterkant: De Surinaamse Vereniging van Journalisten (SVJ) heeft bij aanvang van het proces tot nationale dialoog, dat door de regering in Suriname is opgestart, wederom de nadruk gelegd op het belang van persvrijheid en het recht van vrije meningsuiting.
Trinidad Newsday: Minister of Communications Symon de Nobriga denied the Government had decided to exclude new media or non-traditional media from its media conferences, speaking on Tuesday in the Senate in reply to a motion on the adjournment by Opposition Senator Wade Mark.
Reuters Institute: In the last two decades, dozens of news outlets have disappeared in Venezuela. Between 2013 and 2022, more than 60 Venezuelan newspapers went out of circulation indefinitely due to lack of funds, control by the government or inability to buy enough paper to print their editions. Television broadcasters have either been forced to self-censor or have disappeared. Ten foreign broadcasters have also been forced out.
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MIC UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
Business Journalism
Multimedia Reporting
Digital Security
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Please monitor our website and social media feeds for more information.
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President Kiran Maharaj as she received an award from ACM's President Harvey Panka for her continuous work on training for journalists in the Caribbean. |
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