Date: Wednesday 14 May, 2025

Time: 15:00 - 16:30 CET

Location: Online via Zoom

Registration

Who is eligible to attend?

AGENDA

The meeting will be chaired by GFMD chair Zoe Titus, Director of Namibia Media Trust.

Welcome (15:00 - 15:05)

Adopting minutes of GFMD General Assembly in April 2024 (15:05 - 15:10)

Adoption of GFMD's 2024 audited accounts (15:10 - 15:15)

Adoption of 2024 activity report (15:15 - 15:25)

Updating members on GFMD's budget and activities for 2025 (15:25 - 15:35)

Acceptance of GFMD's auditor for 2025 (15:35 - 15:40)

The GFMD Secretariat will put forward a proposed auditor ahead of the meeting.

GFMD’s auditor for the 2024 financial year was:

Launch of the GFMD Steering Committee Election process (15:40 - 15:50)

Launch of the approval process for the revised GFMD Code of Practice (15:50 - 15:55)

GFMD Strategy 2025-2030: Discussion (15:50 - 16:25)

• Presentation of the process of how members can contribute.

• Open discussion with members about priorities and substance of the new strategy.

Any other business (16:25 - 16:30)

---ENDS---

How do I use this space?

Contents

GFMD's Governance Bodies

• Current Steering Committee

• Past Steering Committees

• Executive Committee

• Policy and Learning Committee

• Membership Committee

GFMD's Constitution and Bylaws

Reports & Analysis

Strategic & business planning

Our strategy for GFMD's International Media Policy and Advisory Centre here.

Archive

In this section, you will find GFMD's 2016-2021 Constitution and Code of Practice and other bylaws and documents.

Contact

Date: Wednesday 24 April, 2024

Time: 13:00 - 14:30 CET

Location: Online via Zoom

Registration

Who is eligible to attend?

AGENDA

The meeting will be chaired by GFMD chair Zoe Titus, Director of Namibia Media Trust.

Welcome (13:00-13:07)

Adopting minutes of GFMD General Assembly in April 2023 (13:07 - 13:12)

Adopting of GFMD's 2023 audited accounts (13:12 - 13:19)

Adopting of 2023 activity report (13:19 - 13:25)

Adoption of the 2024 budget (13:25 - 13:33)

Acceptance of GFMD's auditor for 2024 (13:33 - 13:38)

The GFMD Secretariat put forward VRC REGISTERED AUDITORS to audit GFMD accounts for the 2024 financial year.

Strategic policy discussion (13:38 - 14:28)

Conclusion (14:28 - 14:30)

---ENDS---

GFMD Steering Committee meeting 2024

About the GFMD Steering Committee

The Steering Committee serves as GFMD’s governing body, providing strategic direction and oversight.

The Steering Committee shall manage and oversee the affairs of the GFMD, dealing with major strategic and policy matters facing GFMD and its membership between General Assembly meetings, while the execution of strategy and policy, and administrative matters shall be the responsibility of the Executive Committee and GFMD Secretariat.

— 6.1, GFMD Constitution

Why GFMD is electing a new Steering Committee in 2025

The current GFMD Steering Committee was elected during the 2021 General Assembly, which was held in Tirana, Albania and online.

Role of the Steering Committee

How the Steering Committee is elected

The next Steering Committee, which will serve from 2025 to 2029, will be elected in line with GFMD’s constitution. Members are categorised for Steering Committee elections based on their geographic focus or thematic emphasis:

The rules are outlined in the GFMD Constitution:

Composition of the Steering Committee

12 Seats - Regional Members

2 Seats - Topical & Policy Members

3 Seats - Global Members

Next steps

- May 15th: The election process is officially launched at the online General Assembly on Thursday 15th May 15.00 - 16.30 CET.

- May 15th - June 12th: Call for candidates open to all GFMD members.

- June 16th – July 10th: Online voting.

- July 16th: Election results announced at an extraordinary General Assembly.

- October/November: Meeting of the outgoing and incoming Steering Committee (hopefully in person)*

Background

What is the GFMD Code of Practice?

The GFMD Code of Practice outlines principles and guidelines that uphold its members' integrity, collaboration and shared mission. It fosters trust, accountability, and mutual respect within the GFMD community.

The Code of Practice governs the activities of the GFMD Secretariat and how GFMD members operate and provides a mechanism for accountability and transparency.

When was it last updated?

GFMD’s Code of Practice was drafted in 2016.

Why change it?

During the consultations that led to the OECD’s Development Cooperation Principles for Relevant and Effective Support to Media and the Information Environment, many members highlighted that the Code of Practice needs to be updated to reflect the sector's current trends and needs, including coordination, effectiveness, and equity.

At the May 2024 Steering Committee meeting in Sarajevo, it was agreed that the revised Code of Practice would be available for members to review and provide feedback before they vote on whether to adopt the revised version in the first half of 2025.

Who has been involved in drafting the revised version?

A revised version of the Code of Practice was produced by GFMD consultant, Cara Stern, in collaboration with a geographically representative drafting committee: Lars Tallert - Fojo Media Institute (GFMD member & member of GFMD Policy and Learning Committee) – Europe; Maha Taki - formerly of BBC Media Action (Member of GFMD Policy and Learning Committee) – MENA; Tabani Moyo - Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) (GFMD member, member of GFMD Steering Committee and GFMD Policy and Learning Committee) – Africa; Laura Zommer - Factchequeado (under GFMD member - ICFJ) - Latin America; Rishad Patel - Splice Media (GFMD member) - Asia.

The GFMD Secretariat has since reviewed it with input from the GFMD Steering Committee.

Proposed changes to the Code of Practice

The main change to the existing code of practice is that the new code be split into two sections:

Part I

Part II

Next steps

December 2024 - Members have until Friday 31 January to leave comments and suggestions in the draft Code of Practice which is available in four languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish.

January 2025: The GFMD Steering Committee approves the revised version prepared by the GFMD Secretariat.

May 15 2025: Launch the revised Code of Practice at the online General Assembly meeting.

May 15 – July 10 2025: GFMD members vote on whether to adopt the revised Code of Practice.

July 16 2025: Results are announced.

How members can comment and make suggestions in the draft

Members can leave suggestions and comments in the revised drafts in any of the four languages: Arabic, English, French and Spanish.

Date: Tuesday 5 April

Time: 14:00 - 15:00 CET

Location:

• Rond-Point Schuman 6 / 7th. Floor 1040 Brussels Brussels

• Online via Zoom

Attendance:

In person:

Executive Committee members:

• GFMD deputy chair: Jan Lublinski, Head of Department, Policy and Learning, Deutsche Welle Akademie

• GFMD treasurer: Ruth Kronenburg, Director of Operations, FreePress Unlimited

GFMD Secretariat:

• GFMD executive director: Mira Milosevic

• GFMD head of policy and learning: Tom Law

Brussels notary:

• Kim Lagae: https://kimlagae.be/en/

Online:

• GFMD Chair: Zoe Titus, Director, Namibia Media Trust

• All GFMD members who wish to attend

• Members of the GFMD Secretariat

Background on the role of the GFMD General Assembly

For full details see section seven of the GFMD constitution.

The relevant items for this meeting are:

7.2 Sovereign body

The General Assembly is the sovereign body of the GFMD and brings together all members, as well as partners and supporters, provided that only general members have the right to vote at General Assembly meetings.

The General Assembly:

• Approves annual financial report, including remuneration of members of the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee, the appointment of auditors or representatives and their fees, and the annual budget.

AGENDA

Welcome (5 mins)

This meeting of GFMD’s General Assembly is being held in order to fulfil the legal requirements of our Brussels registration by:

• Adopting minutes of GFMD General Assembly in Tirana, September 2021

• Adopting our new constitution in the presence of a notary.

• Adopting GFMD's 2021 audited accounts.

• Adopting GFMD's budget for this financial year.

• Acceptance of GFMD's auditor for this financial year.

• Discussing any other business raised by GFMD General Members ahead of the meeting.

Adoption of the final version of the new GFMD Constitution (15 mins)

Background

The General Assembly in Tirana also agreed:

Formal adoption

The new Constitution has been reviewed by GFMD's lawyers to ensure that it meets the requirements of Belgium law and translated into French.

Both translations were shared with GFMD members in early January via the GFMD members' mailing list and publised on the GFMD website and on the GFMD Strategy and Governance resource centre.

Approval of 2021 Steering Committee elections

According to the requirements of GFMD's Brussels regsitration, this meeting of the GFMD General Assembly must approve the 30 September 2021 election of the GFMD Steering Committee so that this can be witnessed our notary.

Background on 2021 Steering Committee Elections:

The GFMD new Steeering Committee was elected in Tirana on 30 September 2021.

Below is a quote from the minutes of the 30 September 2021 General Assembly:

Tom Law from the GFMD Secretariat explained the nomination and voting process:

2 Aug. - 10 Sept. – Members were invited to submit their candidacy for the Steering Committee.

21 - 28 Sept. – A full list of candidates for the Steering Committee was shared with the CEO, Director or designated GFMD representative of each general member with a secure link that tracked who had voted but not who they had voted for.

29 Sept. – The voting commission met to verify that the votes have been cast and counted fairly.

The outgoing Chairperson Ricardo Corredor informed the meeting that:

• Out of GFMD’s 103 general members, 81 were eligible to cast a vote (as per the Constitution, only members who are up to date on membership fees are able to vote at the General Assembly).

• 60 votes were cast. There were no invalid votes.

The outgoing Chairperson Ricardo Corredor announced the duly elected members of the new Steering Committee.

Confirming the appointment of the Executive Committee

Our notary has advised that the General Assembly is followed by a Steering Committee meeting in order to confirm the appointment of the members of the Executive Committee.

Confirming that Executive Director is a member of the Executive Committee

Our notary has advised that the Steering Committee meeting after the General Assembly must:

• Officially appoint Ms Mira Milosevic as Executive Director

• Confirm that the position of Exective Director is also a non-voting member of GFMD's Executive Committee.

Adoption of 2021 final accounts (10 mins)

Adoption of 2022 budget (10 mins)

Acceptance of auditors (5 mins)

The GFMD Secretariat would like to put forward CHRISTIAN MISSANTE SRL to audit GFMD accounts for the current financial year.

Any other business (10 mins)

Contact

Frequency of meetings

Upcoming meetings

Recent meetings

FAQs

To help new members and those unfamiliar with the processes and rules that govern GFMD's General Assembly we have put together some answers to frequently asked questions.

Is the General Assembly an in-person meeting?

Does the General Assembly meet between in-person meetings?

What is the General Assembly?

7.2 Sovereign body

The General Assembly is the sovereign body of the GFMD and brings together all members, as well as partners and supporters, provided that only general members have the right to vote at General Assembly meetings.

The General Assembly:

• Approves annual financial report, including remuneration of members of the Executive Committee and the Steering Committee, the appointment of auditors or representatives and their fees, and the annual budget.

Can only GFMD members attend the GFMD General Assembly?

Where has GFMD held in-person General Assembly meetings?

Has the General Assembly been called different things in the past?

What happens at the General Assembly?

1700-1800 GFMD Voting commission meets

A Voting Commission of three Steering Committee members met to review the votes for the new Steering Committee and Constitution and ensure that they had been cast and recorded correctly.

The GFMD Executive Committee nominated the following individuals to sit on the voting commission:

• Ricardo Corredor, Outgoing Chairperson of GFMD

• Mira Milosevic, Executive Director GFMD

• Remzi Lani, director of Albanian Media Institute and outgoing member of the GFMD Steering Committee

1930 - Welcome dinner at Rogner Hotel

General Assembly

On 30 September 2021 GFMD hosted its quadrennial General Assembly in Tirana, Albania.

At the links below you can find reports on

• Ricardo Corredor, outgoing Chairperson of GFMD - speech

• Mira Milosevic, Executive Director GFMD - speech

• Adoption of the new GFMD Constitution

• Adoption of activity and financial reports 2016-2021

• Announcement of new GFMD Steering Committee

Steering Committee meeting

The announcement of the new Steering Committee marked the end of the 2021 GFMD General Assembly.

All members were then invited to attend the first meeting of the new GFMD Steering Committee which was held after a short break in proceedings.

During the meeting, the new GFMD Steering Committee voted for a new Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and Treasurer.

Strategic planning

The day after the General Assembly and Steering Committee meeting, members and partners held a series of discussions on GFMD's strategy for the coming four years.

• Executive Summary

  • Policy & advocacy

  • Knowledge sharing & coordination

  • Membership strategy, capacity building & services

• Highlights of group strategy discussion

Statements and recommendations

Alongside the convening of GFMD members and partners for the General Assembly, two country-focused meetings were held on 30th September in Tirana.

Appendices

In the appendices, you will find the text and videos of the speeches by:

• Mira Milosevic - GFMD Executive Director

• Ricardo Corredor, Outgoing Chairperson of GFMD

HOW THE 2021 GENERAL ASSEMBLY WILL WORK:

This year is going to be very different from previous years as the pandemic has not only put severe limitations on travel but also made organising an event for GFMD members and the wider media development and journalism support community impossible.

Due to these restrictions, the Secretariat is organising an in-person meeting of just over 20 representatives of GFMD general members in Tirana, Albania. This will be combined with a hybrid online General Assembly for all members.

We extend special gratitude to our member, the Albanian Media Institute, for assisting us in organising the event.

1. In-person meeting

The in-person gathering will include:

* Nominations for the new Steering Committee are now closed. A list of candidates is available here. Voting for the new Steering Committee will take place online from 20-24 September online.

2. Hybrid General Assembly for all members

Members who are not able to travel to Tirana will be able to join the General Assembly online on September 30th and October 1st.

As not all General Members will be able to attend the in-person meeting many of the processes and decisions that are normal taken at the event will begin before and end after the in-person meeting.

For example:

The nomination process for candidates for the GFMD Steering Committee was launched on August 2nd via an email to the GFMD members mailing list.

Voting for the new Steering Committee will take place online 20-28th September.

And the results will be announce at the General Assembly on 30th September.

With this in mind, the Agenda for the 2021 GFMD General Assembly has been split into three sections:

1 - Activities that will take place before the hybrid (in-person and online) General Assembly:

2 - The Agenda for the hybrid (in-person and online) General Assembly:

3 - Activities that will take place after the hybrid (in-person and online)

WHAT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY WILL VOTE ON AND DISCUSS

- Steering Committee candidates and elections

Every four years (five in this exceptional case) GFMD general members vote to elect a new Steering Committee at the General Assembly.

The Steering Committee then elects a Chairperson, Deputy-Chairperson and Treasurer from among its number.

For more about the Steering Committee and the election, see:

• General Assembly FAQs

• VI. STEERING COMMITTEE in the new GFMD constitution

- Changes to GFMD constitution and bylaws

On 13 August, the Secretariat published the rationale behind a series of suggested changes to the GFMD Constitution.

A final version of the new constitution - incorporating suggestions and feedback from members - was published and shared with members on 15th September.

Voting to approve the new Constitution will take place from 20-28th September.

The result will be announced at the General Assembly on 30th September.

- 2021-2025 GFMD Strategy

The Secretariat has also developed a draft strategic plan that will form the basis for discussion at the meeting on 1st October.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

As we continue with the preparations leading towards the event, we will keep you informed. Stay tuned for more updates!

2 August 2021

- Date of General Assembly announced

- Calls for candidates for GFMD Steering Committee

13 Aug. - 10 Sept. 2021

- Consultation period for changes to GFMD Constitution

10 September 2021

- Deadline for members to submit candidacy for GFMD Steering Committee

- Deadline for feedback about the proposed changes to the GFMD Constitution

15 - 17 September 2021

- Constitutional changes finalised and presented to members

21 - 28 September 2021

- Voting for new Steering Committee

• Read more about the Steering Committee's mandate in the new GFMD Constitution, Section VI.

• See our FAQs on the Steering Committee here.

- Voting to adopt the new GFMD Constitution

27 September 2021

- Five-year reports shared with General members

Date: Wednesday 26 April

Time: 13:00 - 14:30 CET

Registration:

Who is eligible to attend?

AGENDA

Welcome (13:00-13:07)

Adopting minutes of GFMD General Assembly in Brussels, April 2022 (13:07 - 13:12)

Adoption of GFMD's 2022 audited accounts (13:12 - 13:19)

Adoption of 2022 activity report (13:19 - 13:34)

Update on GFMD Membership (13:34 - 13:49)

Updating and adoption of the 2023 budget (13:49 - 13:57)

Acceptance of GFMD's auditor for 2023 (13:57 - 14:04)

The GFMD Secretariat put forward CHRISTIAN MISSANTE SRL to audit GFMD accounts for the 2024 financial year.

Updating GFMD’s Code of Practice & AOB (14:04 - 14:27)

One item on the agenda is that the GFMD Secretariat is proposing that GFMD's current Code of Practice is updated to better articulate and govern the obligations of GFMD members in terms of maintaining the highest standards of integrity, governance, financial transparency and accountability, as well as how to deepen collaboration and within the sector.

This section of the meeting will be a discussion on the code of practice in the framework of the localisation agenda and the ongoing process to renew the principles for effective media development.

Conclusion (14:27 - 14:30)

-- ENDS --

GFMD Steering Committee meeting 2023

Global Forum for Media Development - TIRANA, 2021

0845 - Registration and welcome coffee

0900-1045 - Albanian perspectives on media development and journalism support

Venue: Meeting room Antigonea 2, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

Moderator: Lutfi Dervishi, journalist, media expert.

Opening remarks:

Keynote

Open discussion:

• The state of media freedom in Albania.

• Investigative journalism and reporting organised crime and corruption.

• Responses to information disorder and approaches of media development donors in Albania.

• International mechanisms of media freedom and media development (such as Media Freedom Coalition and International Fund for Public Interest Media)

Recommendations and Conclusions

• Rapporteur: Blerjana Bino, Center Science and Innovation for Development

GFMD General Assembly 2021

Venue: Meeting room Antigonea 2, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

1300-1330 - Welcome

Ricardo Corredor, Outgoing Chairperson of GFMD

Mira Milosevic, Executive Director GFMD

1330-1350 - Changes to the GFMD Constitution

The Secretariat explained the process:

The Secretariat gave an overview of the key changes:

The Chair announces the results.

Discussion: The floor was be open for any comments by members.

1350-1420 - Activity report 2016-2021

Members of the GFMD Secretariat presented brief highlights from the 2016-2021 activity report.

GFMD Executive Director, Mira Milosevic, presented highlights of the activities of the Global Forum for Media Development between 2016 and 2021.

The GFMD Secretariat provided an update to members about the achievements and activities of the network since 2016.

• Biba Klomp - International Partnerships Manager - who spoke about the results of a network analysis of GFMD's membership

• Olga Komarova - Communications Manager - speaks about improvements to GFMD's communications.

1420-1430 - Financial report 2017-2021

GFMD members were given an update on the network's finances since the last General Assembly in 2016 by the GFMD Secretariat.

• GFMD Executive Director: Mira Milosevic

• GFMD Finance Manager: Klea Trbovic Zivkovic

1430-1445 - Discussion & adoption of GFMD activity and financial reports

GFMD General members were be invited to discuss and adopt the GFMD activity and financial reports.

1445-1500 - Announcement of new GFMD Steering Committee

The GFMD Secretariat will explain:

The outgoing Chairperson Ricardo Corredor announces the duly elected members of the new Steering Committee.

END OF THE 2021 GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly is brought to a close by the outgoing Chairperson.

1500-1545 BREAK

1545-1730 - First meeting of new GFMD Steering Committee (with attendance of outgoing Steering Committee)

Venue: Meeting room Antigonea 2, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

1545-1615 Candidacy for the GFMD Executive Committee

1615-1630 Steering Committee members vote for the new GFMD Executive Committee

1630-1645 New GFMD Executive Committee announced

1645-1700 Working rules of the Steering Committee

1700-1715 - Conclusion

End of the Steering Committee meeting

1730 - 1830 Afghanistan assistance coordination meeting

Three journalists from Afghanistan presented the current situation and speak about the forms of assistance most needed.

• Event: Albanian perspectives on media development and journalism support

• Date: 30 September 2021 (0900-1045 CEST)

• Venue: Rogner Hotel, Tirana, Albania

• Moderator: Lutfi Dervishi, journalist, media expert.

• Rapporteur: Blerjana Bino, Center Science and Innovation for Development

Mira Milosevic, Executive Director, Global Forum for Media Development - GFMD

• Importance of coalition of media partners (international community, media organisations, diplomacy level) and local actors, journalists, and media organisations to flag violations of media freedom and safety of journalists.

• This coalition should also advocate for having media freedom and freedom of expression in the agenda of multilateral and bilateral relations.

• It is paramount to work with local organisations which have better insight in media situation and landscape and partner them with international networks, forums, organisations to exchange experience and build partnerships to foster media freedom.

Remzi Lani, Member of the outgoing GFMD Steering Committee, director of Albanian Media Institute

• Echoed the messages of Ms Milosevic on the importance to understand local media context and build bridges with global media organisations.

• Albania has a vibrant media landscape with still a significant support from the international community. The engagement of international community in media ecosystem in Albania has a legacy of both success and failures and it is important to understand both legacies.

• A major concern currently in Albania is the danger of “false speech” – hate speech, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, fake news. It is important for stakeholders to engage in a comprehensive discussion on this issue.

Alastair King-Smith, UK Ambassador to the Republic of Albania (and former Co-ordinator of the Global Campaign for Media Freedom at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

• Appreciating GFMD as a global effort that is sustainable to impact free and independent media

• Media freedom is fundamental to support all other freedoms and democracy as a whole

• The GFMD workshop in Tirana is a great opportunity to share lessons learnt, experiences and contribute to partnership between different partners.

• The aim is to identify common interests and foster new partnerships for media development between local and international partners and keep media freedom high up in the agenda.

• Some of the concerns of media development and media freedom in Albania: concentration of ownership, risks of media plurality and financial sustainability, disinformation, fake news and how to sustain quality of journalism, self-censorship, media trust and unethical online media reporting including bribery for attacking business or organisations, regulation of online and mainstream media, self-regulation, and professional standards.

• UK Embassy interest on climate change considering the Glasgow high level meeting in October 2021 on climate change. Sustainable energy, circular economy, and related environmental issues.

• UK Embassy interest on security issues as well.

• The role of media is crucial in exposing challenges around organized crime, corruption, climate change and enforcement of law and thus have complementarity of impact on democratic processes such as transparency and accountability of government, justice system.

• Interest in identifying proposals on how the international community can support media freedom. Also building local and international partnerships, putting media freedom high up in the agenda, supporting media integrity, ethical reporting and tackling gender equality in media as well. Thus, the challenge is to make it work in Albania and share it as a success story.

Lufti Dervishi, moderator of the forum, highlighted significant changes in the media landscape and the blurring of boundaries between media and ‘audiences’ with cases of politicians becoming media. Also, trust in media is becoming a worrisome phenomenon with clear decline of citizens trust in the media.

Blerjana Bino made an overview of media landscape in Albania based on the findings of Safe Journalists Network report on Indicators on the Level of Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety in Albania 2020 highlighting challenges of media freedom in Albania particularly in terms of implementation of legal guarantees for media freedom, due prevention, due process and actual attacks, the position of journalists, particularly women, in the workspace, access to information, risks of disinformation/misinformation, but also censored information, centralisation of public information and propaganda.

So, in terms of the legal environment, even though the Constitution of Albania guarantees the freedom of expression, media, and information, such provisions are not thoroughly implemented in practice with clear signs of deterioration of media freedom. For instance, In Albania, defamation is still a criminal contravention and there have been recent attempts by governmental officials to increase sanctions. Investigative and critical journalists are particularly more often the target of defamation lawsuits particularly SLAPPs as a mechanism to censor, intimidate, or silence independent media.

In terms of the safety of journalists and due prevention measures, the report finds that Albania’s state institutions have not established yet effective mechanisms that are specific for journalists and media staff to provide protective measures when they are threatened. Also in terms of due process, we find limited follow-up investigation, cases of attacks against journalists have not been resolved yet and there is limited transparency about the investigation process remain critical.

In terms of safety, actual attacks against journalists have been recorded in 2020 such as actual physical harm, arbitrary detention, seizing of equipment and disruption of reporting. Threats against the lives and physical safety of journalists exist but, such cases are not systemic.

In terms of, journalists’ position in the workplace: journalists labour rights enforcement is not consolidated with the COVID-19 pandemic further impacting the economic position in the workplace (job contracts, salary cuts, social security and others), but more concerning is that women journalists face somehow increased difficulties compared to men in terms of salaries, intimidation, gap in leading positions in the newsroom, and harassment. Women journalists, particularly young, report facing sexual harassment in the workplace. However, such cases are not reported officially and usually no charges are filed due to an overall climate of intimidation and a general attitude of ‘blaming the victim’.

Self-censorship is still present. Copyright infringement is also a major problem in broadcast, print and online media. Thus, pointing to the overall quality of content, its diversity, and how much it is connected to audiences and communities’ needs. The report highlights the necessity for media, particularly local media, to venture into alternative ways of ensuring financial sustainability through engagement of audiences and communities, diaspora engagement, monetization of content and covering topics that have currently limited coverage including environment, climate change, empowerment of marginalised groups, impact of technology, gender equality and others. Soon a safe journalist index will be published for the region, including Albania with a comparative report and ranking of WB6 countries and Croatia.

Challenges or structural issues highlighted by the participants included:

• Role of government (local, central government and other authorities) is problematic with attempts to introduce legislation that hinders media freedom; establishment of centralised public communication and media agency; intense propaganda and systemic attempts to replace journalism with pre-registered and pre-prepared media content by the Public Relations staff of Prime Minister, ministers, Mayor, and other authorities.

• The challenges in law enforcement is another major concern with the media legal framework being good on paper, but with critical shortcomings in its implementation.

• Limited political will to ensure a functioning and enabling environment for media freedom, endemic and grand corruption, limited functioning of justice system and overall limited democratic culture affect media freedom and independence.

• Symbiotic relations between media corporations, politicians and businesses based on clientelistic and other vested interests hinder the overall media freedom and independence (limited media plurality, concentrated ownership, low media trust etc.)

Topics and issues that were highlighted in the discussion included:

• Access to information, ensuring safe and enabling space to do quality journalism. Limited implementation of the legal framework on freedom of information primarily due to lack of political will, a culture of secrecy and retaining public information, limited practices to implement accountability and transparency measures. Limited access to information negatively impacts media reporting and in particular investigative journalism. Safety of journalists and access to public information is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (16/10) and this is a window of opportunity to pressure government to foster sustainability and accountability and better implementation of access to information legal framework. Also, it is important to highlight the public interest perspective also in accessing and using public information as a public good. Cross border collaboration and other coalitions with international organisations are needed for fostering access to information and EU and other donors can play an important role.

• Investigative journalism as a key dimension of quality journalism and democracy. It is paramount to have an enabling environment and support for journalists and media organisations to do investigative journalism. Risk of SLAPP increasing as a threat to investigative journalists (financial burden), limited access to information, delays and other pressures to abandon stories and reporting.

• Role of journalists in advocating for change or monitoring legal changes or changes in other legislation that affect media freedom, report, raise awareness and mobilise support for media freedom.

• Role of international community and donors in supporting media organisations and the necessity of bottom-up approaches and engaging with local media without imposing donors’ agenda and interest.

• Quality of data collection and publication for media freedom, journalists’ safety and link of media freedom with Sustainable Development Goals.

• The necessity to create an enabling environment for journalists as professionals (individuals) to be able to do good journalism: capacity development, legal support, financial support, networking opportunity, improving labor rights.

• Strengthening local media and local news.

• Organisation and coordination among media associations, NGOs, and other actors involved in media landscape for better impact, advocacy, and outreach.

• Trust in media and quality of journalism for increasing media trust in Albania.

• Information disorder with issues such as fake news, hate speech, disinformation, conspiracy theories, propaganda deteriorate the overall media landscape in Albania. The information disorder is primary domestic and political with limited influence from Russia or China as in the rest of the Western Balkans region. The need for combining quality of journalism with quality of education through media literacy programmes.

Ways forward:

Speech of Mira Milosevic - GFMD Executive Director

Dear Chair, GFMD members, partners, supporters, colleagues,

Thank you all for being with us today. I am grateful that we can be here in Tirana, and finally see some of you in person. We are all excited and emotional.

I would like to start with a quote that I believe describes well the situation that we found ourselves in. Unfortunately, this is only one of the trends that are not working in favour of professional journalism. As we heard from our Albanian colleagues, and we see it around the world, even though we are seeing some of the best journalism being produced today, long term, all odds are set against us.

When we look at international development and international cooperation, COVID-19 has shown us the fragility of our institutions and the fault lines in international cooperation, just as the need for unified action is more urgent than ever.

Many international actors continue with securitised responses to multiple crises, while protection of civic space, more accountable and inclusive societies, and respect for human rights, including freedom of expression and media freedom is often an add on, an afterthought and not human rights by design.

We have been making the argument for many years why investing in journalism and media is important, and we somehow seem to be stuck at 500 and the same siloed approach, while countering violent extremism, countering misinformation and stratcom approaches are gaining momentum. Other development areas rarely recognise relevance of professional reporting for achieving their goals.

At the same time, in the digital sphere, small, non-profit, community, investigative and similar newsrooms and media are not recognised by the system. On the contrary, large disinformation operations, influencers, and troll and content farms are currently making much more money than journalism and finding ways to large audiences.

Many of our members and their partners have experienced the removal of their content and accounts by Facebook, Google Search, YouTube, and others without meaningful notice and appeal mechanisms. Instead of becoming a major provider of credible, ethical, reliable information, with clear paths for monetisation, journalists and media are relegated to the roles of fact-checkers, trusted flaggers, and occasionally grantees of big tech corporate programmes looking to capture any innovation.

These are two major influence and policy areas for our network and while one continues to be short term, mid-term priority, securing the future of journalism in new hybrid environments will continue to be a long term priority for all of us.

Even though the media development and journalism support community have an extraordinary track record in freedom of expression policy and advocacy, there are very few organisations that have the resources and expertise to effectively identify advocacy opportunities, implement research and analysis, produce adequate and relevant documents, and successfully advocate on media pluralism and viability/sustainability in both of those policy areas.

There is a resource, knowledge and expertise gap related to digital markets, competition policies, state aid rules, media pluralism, and future digital and media regulation that needs addressing for our sector to be able to appropriately advocate for the inclusion of joint policy positions into current policy discussions.

We are facing a similar situation when attempting to develop policy and advocacy addressing the wider UN system, OECD donors, World Bank and other Development Banks and related institutions, other global and regional intergovernmental bodies and initiatives, individual governments, private sector and advertising industry etc.

We also need more global voices bringing information, evidence, and local solutions to these debates. We need to reinforce their capacity.

What a journey we’ve had over the last five years. As you will see from our reports and the new network analysis, members remain dedicated and loyal to GFMD; they see value in information and knowledge exchange, policy and decision-making support, and networking.

Our main job is to connect and the connectedness of the GFMD network has improved since the previous network analysis. It appears that members are forging connections with each other and in such a way that the connections are distributed equally rather than concentrating around a select few organisations.

Yet, when looking at the Global North/South divide, we see that the connections between GFMD members are still dominated by the North.

The three most challenging issues identified about the media support sector in general include:

• issues with securing funding

• working in environments hostile to independent journalism

• and having an inability to diversify revenue

These are some of the issues that have informed and shaped our work over the last couple of years, and are outlined in our next 5-year strategy.

In response to these challenges, we have created spaces to talk, share knowledge and experiences and act together.

In collaboration with GFMD’s larger network and partners, we have amplified journalism and news media voices and impacted policy agendas.

As the pandemic has highlighted – now more than ever – voices representing small, local, independent journalism and media organisations need to be heard in the policy and regulatory fora in order to secure the future of professional journalism.

As we go forward every organisation and every project in our network should think about contributing to securing the future of journalism, with less competition and more working together.

This means that without policies that envisage new public funding, regulation of digital markets, and enhanced international support systems for non-profit media, independent professional journalism is in danger of becoming an expensive luxury rather than a universal public good.

Over the last five years, GFMD members, Steering Committee, our Secretariat team with generous support from our partners have succeeded in making GFMD a trusted partner and strong organisation.

Thank you all for your support and for being part of our network.

-- ENDS --

Speech of Ricardo Corredor, Outgoing Chairperson of GFMD

A lot has changed in the last five years for GFMD we must admit since our last global forum in Jakarta. But in terms of our mission, I am afraid many of the urgent large issues still remain great challenges for all of us, as Mira mentioned some of them: democracy and freedom of expression is threatened in many countries, the sustainability of media, in general, is still a big question mark, support for media development from foreign aid is still low, technology continues the drive the whole game and the big digital platforms have all become stronger and more powerful key players.

But precisely because we still have all those challenges and more, this network of people and organizations is needed more than ever. If I learned anything from all of you throughout these years is to be persistent and even headstrong in pursuing and not giving up on the goal of having a world where media freedom is a reality and democracy is strong. You all every day wake up and put all your energy and resources in order to achieve this and because of that, you have my total admiration and respect!

The good news however is that our organization, GFMD, is in better shape to contribute to overcoming these goals and challenges. Many things have changed in the last five years while I have been the chair of the organization and I want to highlight four:

• Financial stability

• We are providing better services to our members

• Our secretariat is more solid and now we a staff of 9 wonderful professionals from different parts of the world

• And finally, we are more influential in the sector

Those results should make us all very proud and there are so many people I would like to thank. So let me take this opportunity to say gracias to several people.

First, I want to thank Jaime Abello the general director of the Fundacion Gabo. As you know until 2018 I worked with Jaime and the Fundacion as executive director and it was Jaime that allow me to represent the Fundacion at this network. So for that and for many other things I’m thankful. Gracias Jaime if he is awake!

I want to thank my colleagues on the outgoing steering committee. All of the 18 members have been absolutely fantastic to interact with.

Africa caucus

• Cyprian Ndikumana (Burundi), Director General of the Panos Institute, Great Lakes.

• Diana Senghor (Senegal), founder and Director General of the Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA).

Our members from the Western European caucus who left their positions since the last General assembly

• Thierry (France), advisor to the General Manager of CFI.

• Petra Berner (Germany), head of Strategy and Consulting Services at DW Akademie.

Eurasia caucus

• Tihomir Loza (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Executive Director of the South Eastern European Network for Media Professionalization (SEENPM).

• Kateryna Myasnikova (Ukraine), Executive Director of the Independent Association of Broadcasters.

Middle East and North Africa caucus

• Gisèle Khoury (Lebanon), President of the Samir Kassir Foundation – SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom.

• Mousa Rimawi (Palestine), co-founder and Director of the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms-MADA.

Asia caucus

• Owais Aslam Ali (Pakistan), Secretary-General of Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), Chair of Pakistan Press International (PPI).

• Nezar Patria (Indonesia), member of Indonesian Press Council for 2016-2019 and Chief Editor of The Jakarta Post Digital. Co-founder and Managing Editor at VIVA.co.id.

Latin America and Caribbean caucus

• Denis Chabrol (Guyana), Second Vice President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers. Publisher of Demerara Waves Online.

North America caucus

• Jeanne Bourgault (USA), President and CEO of Internews.

• Leon Morse - Michael Mirny (USA), Senior Media Advisor at IREX and Managing Editor of the Media Sustainability Index. Misha Mirney

The 14 elected members were joined by five incumbent members

• Leon Willems (Netherlands), Director for Policy and Programmes of Free Press Unlimited);

• Jesper Højberg (Denmark), Executive Director of International Media Support (IMS);

• James Deane (UK), Director for Policy and Learning at BBC Media Action;

• Joyce Barnathan (USA), President of the International Center for Journalists;

• Remzi Lani (Albania), Executive Director of the Albanian Media Institute; and

The late Jeannette Minnie (South Africa), the founder of Zambezi Fox, whose membership of GFMD’s Steering Committee was extended for a third and final term by the new GFMD Constitution, adopted on September 10, 2016.

A special thanks gracias to my colleagues on the executive committee, Jan Lublisnki and Thierry Vallat. We have been working together a lot these last months and is been a joy to work with you two. Merci, Danke!

And also to the previous secretariat: Ayman Mhanna, Stephanie Khalaf, and Caroline Giroud.

But the main gracias goes out to all of you are members that are here and connected online. It’s for you that we have done all that we have done, I said it before and will say it again: to chair this organization is been a privilege and it's been a professional career highlight.

When I was packing I decided to bring this book. These are a sort of memoirs of the publisher of one of our main news digital sites in Colombia, la Silla Vacia. It was published last year but I hadn’t read it until the plane flight. The empty chair as is called is been for 10 years and Juanita describes all the struggles she is been through to keep it independent and competitive. She is doing an amazon job I am a great admirer of what they do.

13-22 October 2021

- Period for consultation and approval of reports and strategy for General members who did not attend the General Assembly.

While GFMD’s strategy for 2021-2025 will be discussed at the General Assembly, it will not be voted on until after the meeting.

This is in order to

• Allow changes and additions to be made based on in-person and hybrid discussions at the General Assembly.

• Ensure that all members (especially those not able to attend online or in-person) have time to review and provide feedback.

This period will also allow all members not able to attend online or in-person to provide feedback and vote on the adoption of the:

• GFMD activity report 2017-2021

• GFMD financial report 2017-2021

• Strategic plan 2021-2025

1 November 2021

- Final approved documents shared with General members

The Secretariat announces the final results of additional online voting and comments and shares the following final documents with members:

• GFMD activity report for 2017-2021

• GFMD financial report 2017- 2021

• GFMD strategy 2021-2025

Executive Committee

• Chairperson: Joyce Barnathan - International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) (USA)

• Vice-Chair: Manana Aslamazyan - Internews Europe (France)

• Chairman Emeritus: David Hoffman, Internews Network (USA)

Asia

• South East Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) (Thailand) - Roby Alampay

• Panos South Asia (India) - A.S. Panneerselvan

• Journalism and Media Studies Centre, Hong Kong and Shantou universities (China) - Ying Chan

Africa

• IFJ Africa Office (Senegal) - Gabriel Baglo,

• Zambezi FoX (South Africa) - Jeanette Minnie,

• Kenya Media Institute (Kenya) - David Makali,

Eurasia

• South East European Network for Professionalisation of Media (SEENPM) (Albania) - Remzi Lani

• Independent Association of Broadcasters (Ukraine) - Katerina Myasnykova / sharing with Media Development Center (Bulgaria) - Ognian Zlatev

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI) (Colombia) - Jaime Abello Banfi

• Agencia de Noticias dos Direitos de Infancia (ANDI) (Brazil) - Veet Vivarta

• Association of Caribbean Media Workers (Trinidad and Tobago) - Wesley Gibbings

Middle East/North Africa

• Al Khabar (Algeria) - Ali Djerri,

• Radio Farahalnas/Hashemite Fund for Human Development (Jordan) - Haitham Shibli

• Chada FM (Morocco) - Hassan Nadir

International Caucus

• BBC World Service Trust (now BBC Media Action) (UK) - James Deane

• International Media Support (Denmark) - Jesper Hojberg,

• Press Now (now FreePress Unlimited) (the Netherlands) - Leon Willems

• Panos Institute (UK) - Mark Wilson

GFMD strategy discussion (0900-1230)

This session was an opportunity for members to discuss a range of issues facing GFMD and the wider media development and journalism support sector.

The discussion was be split into two sessions:

1. First, an in-person discussion among those attending in Tirana.

2. Secondly, a hybrid discussion for all members.

0900-1030 - GFMD Strategy breakout groups

General members attending the event were invited to join and contribute to the following breakout groups to contribute to GFMD’s 2021-2025 Strategy.

GFMD members present in Tirana volunteered to act as moderators and rapporteurs, whereas members of the GFMD Secretariat took notes to ensure that suggestions are presented and shared at the following session and incorporated into GFMD's strategic plan.

Policy & advocacy

Venue: meeting room Antigonea 2, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

Knowledge sharing & coordination

Venue: meeting room Antigonea 2, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

Membership strategy, capacity building & services

Venue: meeting room Antigonea 3, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

Building GFMD's membership and network:

1030-1100 BREAK

1100-1230 - GFMD 2021 to 2025 Strategy workshop

Venue: meeting room Antigonea 2, Rogner Hotel, Bulevardi Dëshmorët e Kombit, Tirana

This workshop was the final stage of drafting the GFMD’s 2021-2025 Strategy.

It aimed to finalise strategic objectives for the Global Forum for Media Development until the end of 2025, drawing on input from the Steering Committee, members, partners, and experts from the wider network.

This Strategic Plan will help to define and focus GFMD’s programmes and core activities over the coming 4 year period.

1230-1300 - Adoption of recommendations and the final statement from the meeting

1300 onwards - LUNCH, networking, and return travel

For background and FAQs on the GFMD General Assembly see:

A full list of participants is available here:

Welcome

Ricardo Corredor, outgoing Chairperson of GFMD

The outgoing Chair:

• Reminded members that they had voted at GFMD’s 15-year anniversary celebration last year to postpone the General Assembly until at least some members were able to meet in person.

• Thanked the Albanian Media Institute, especially its Director, outgoing Steering Committee member Remzi Lani, for helping organise the General Assembly in Tirana.

• Reported that GFMD is in better shape to contribute to overcoming the challenges faced by the sector, highlighting four main improvements over the last five years; financial stability; providing better services to our members; a more solid Secretariat – “We have a staff of 9 wonderful professionals from different parts of the world”; and finally, that GFMD is more influential in the sector.

• Thanked the outgoing Steering Committee and Jaime Abello, General Director of the Fundacion Gabo for their support over the last five years.

Mira Milosevic, Executive Director GFMD

The GFMD Executive Director:

• Outlined the trends that are not working in favour of professional journalism; lack of international development and international cooperation; securitised responses to multiple crises; freedom of expression and media freedom is often an add on, an afterthought and not human rights by design.

• Explained that GFMD’s response has been to make the case as to why investing in journalism and media is important.

• Warned of the challenges in the digital sphere, where small, non-profit, community, investigative, and similar newsrooms and media are not recognised by the system and have experienced removal of their content and accounts.

• Expressed caution that while the media development and journalism support community have an extraordinary track record in freedom of expression policy and advocacy, there are very few organisations that have the resources and expertise to be effective in media and journalism sustainability policy areas as there is a resource, knowledge, and expertise gap.

• Called for more global voices bringing information, evidence, and local solutions to these debates.

• Thanked members for their dedication and loyalty to GFMD; seeing value in information and knowledge exchange, policy and decision-making support, and networking;

• Highlighted the three most challenging issues identified about the media support sector in general; securing funding; working in environments hostile to independent journalism; an inability to diversify revenue.

• Explained how members could contribute to GFMD’s 5-year strategy by using the spaces GFMD has created to talk, share knowledge and experiences, and act together.

“As we go forward every organisation and every project in our network should think about contributing to securing the future of journalism, with less competition and more working together.

This means that without policies that envisage new public funding, regulation of digital markets, and enhanced international support systems for non-profit media, independent professional journalism is in danger of becoming an expensive luxury rather than a universal public good.

Over the last five years, GFMD members, Steering Committee, our Secretariat team with generous support from our partners have succeeded in making GFMD a trusted partner and strong organisation.”

Mira and Ricardo gave a tribute to the outgoing Steering Committee.

Special thanks and mention was given to:

• Joyce Barnathan – outgoing president of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and Chair of GFMD from 2008-2012.

• Mark Nelson – outgoing senior director at the Centre for International Media Assistance (CIMA)

Adoption of the new GFMD Constitution

The Chair confirmed:

As this exceeded the two-thirds threshold outlined in the previous GFMD constitution, the Chair declared the new Constitution adopted, adding:

“I hope that you will all agree that the new constitution will make GFMD a much more efficient and effective organisation but also makes our Steering Committee more representative and diverse and therefore better able to work on behalf of the sector.”

The General Assembly also agreed:

The Executive Director:

• Informed the General Assembly of a new Belgium law that regulates the operations of companies and also of associations from both local and international that was adopted in 2019 and is coming into force gradually. As GFMD is registered in Brussels this new law requires all general members to meet once per year to adopt both activity and financial reports but also to approve the choice of auditor for the financial audit;

• Gave notice that when the Secretariat shares the meeting report from the General Assembly, members will also be sent information about the two auditors that GFMD has been using over the last two years. With one of them put forward for General members to approve to audit GFMD’s 2021 accounts;

• Noted that annual General Assembly meetings will take place online, with every fourth taking place in person unless the Steering Committee decides that circumstances allow for more frequent in-person meetings.

Adoption of activity and financial reports 2016-2021

Activity reports

The GFMD Executive Director presented brief highlights from the 2016-2021 period.

Members of the GFMD Secretariat gave an in-depth briefing of activities and achievements.

Speakers:

• Fiona Nzingo – Membership and Engagement Manager – who spoke about the GFMD's recruitment and retention of members: https://gfmd.info/members/

• Anne Marie Hammer – Programmes and Project Manager – who spoke about the launch of the GFMD MediaDev Fundraising Guide https://fundraising-guide.gfmd.info/

• Ivana Bjelic Vucinic – Programmes and Project Manager – who spoke about GFMD's coordination activities in Lebanon and elsewhere https://coordination.gfmd.info/

• Tom Law – Head of Policy and Learning – who spoke about the launch of the International Media Policy and Advisory Centre (GFMD IMPACT): https://impact.gfmd.info/

• Biba Klomp – International Partnerships Manager – who spoke about the results of a network analysis of GFMD's membership: https://strategy.gfmd.info/planning/network-analysis

• Olga Komorova – Communications Manager – who spoke about improvements to GFMD's communications including the launch of the new GFMD website: https://gfmd.info/

Financial report

GFMD Finance Manager, Klea Trbovic Zivkovic, informed the meeting that over the past five years, GFMD has received core and programmatic grants from institutional and private donors for specific activities including from; the National Endowment for Democracy (NED); Open Society Foundations (OSF); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (UK FCDO); International Media Support (IMS); Free Press Unlimited (FPU); DW Akademie; UNESCO; and BBC Media Action (BBC MA).

The Executive Director:

Reported that the Steering Committee has approved GFMD’s financial reports and audits over the last four years.

Noted that GFMD was in negative equity in 2017 and 2018 but with careful collaboration between GFMD’s members and partners and financial support from some members such as Free Press Unlimited, the organisation is in a good position administratively, programmatically, and financially.

Explained that GFMD now has a diverse revenue stream. As well as programmatic and core support from donors and funders, membership fees provide between 35 to 38% of GFMD’s revenues.

“And this is really important to make us a credible partner and also to have some independence and do things that are sometimes urgent, but we don't have funding for them. As we progress, we will think about how to diversify the revenue stream even further and to work with both members and partners to make GFMD an even more strong and stable organization.”

Predicted that the GFMD Secretariat will not grow much larger than it is.

“We are planning to provide better conditions for our staff that have been with us for more than two years, too, also invest more in the capacity of our members around the world to join us in doing joint policy and advocacy."

Discussion

Jan Lublinski, Head of Department, Policy and Learning, Deutsche Welle Akademie:

“I think this presentation of Mira and the team she's built is quite impressive because it has shown what GFMD can do with the content work that we needed to do. And it can do it on many different domains. [...] The fact that this team is active and [...] dealing with all these things is quite an extraordinary achievement of Mira but also of her team.”

Jesper Højberg, Executive Director, International Media Support (IMS):

“It is important to discuss priorities [...] because the team is not big. [...] It's actually overwhelming how much you have been able to achieve. So, of course, all praise for that. But I think when we look forward to having an impact on some of these very, very complex issues that you also brought up Mira so well, I think we need to discuss what it is that we expect from the Secretariat. [...] I don't think we should leave without having somehow clarified some of those key priorities that will allow us, all of us in particular the Secretariat, to not end up being overstretched.”

Ricardo Corredor, Outgoing Chairperson of GFMD:

“I hope you agree with me that this team deserves a great round of applause for all the work they've done.

Adoption

The GFMD activity reports and GFMD financial reports were both adopted by general members present in Tirana and those who attended via Zoom.

It was noted that the adoption and approval of the audit was provisional to allow members unable to attend in person or by Zoom to vote. Recordings of the presentations will be shared with all members on 11th October. The final deadline for objections and/or questions and voting will be 22nd October.

Announcement of new GFMD Steering Committee

Tom Law from the GFMD Secretariat explained the nomination and voting process:

The outgoing Chairperson Ricardo Corredor informed the meeting that:

The outgoing Chairperson Ricardo Corredor announced the duly elected members of the new Steering Committee.

Asia, Pacific and Oceania (2 members)

• Owais Aslam Ali, Secretary-General, Pakistan Press Foundation

• Prue Clarke, Co-founder, Executive Director, Editor, New Narratives

Eastern Europe, the Caucuses, and Central Asia (2 members)

• Drew Sullivan, Co-founder and Publisher, Journalism Development Network/OCCRP

• Marija Ristic, Regional Director, Balkan Investigative Reporting Network - BIRN

Europe (Western, Central, Northern, and Southern) (1 member)

• Lars Boering, Director, European Journalism Centre - EJC

Latin America and the Caribbean (2 members)

• Mijal Iastrebner, Co-founder and Managing Director, SembraMedia

• Wesley Gibbings, Executive Member, Association of Caribbean Media Workers

Middle East and North Africa (2 members)

• Ayman Mhanna, Executive Director, Samir Kassir Foundation - SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom

• Roula Mikhael, Executive Director, Maharat Foundation

North America (1 member)

• Sharon Moshavi, President, International Center for Journalists - ICFJ

Sub-Saharan Africa (2 members)

• Vusumuzi Sifile, Executive Director, Panos Institute Southern Africa

• Zoe Titus, Director, Namibia Media Trust

Global (3 members)

• Caroline Vuillemin, General Director, Fondation Hirondelle

• Jan Lublinski, Head of Department, Policy and Learning, Deutsche Welle Akademie

• Ruth Kronenburg, Director of Operations, FreePress Unlimited

Topical & policy (2 members)

• Tabani Moyo, Acting Regional Director, Media Institute of Southern Africa - MISA

• Toby Mendel, Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy

The outgoing Chair thanked all those who had put themselves forward as a candidate.

“It is really heartening to see such enthusiasm for the work of GFMD and your willingness to contribute to the future of our network. I am sure that we will find constructive ways to engage you all in our work over the next few years.

It is also very welcome to see that 8 of the 17 members are women. This is a vast improvement from the 5 out 19 women who served on the previous Steering Committee.”

The GFMD Executive Director extended “warm congratulations to the members of our new steering committee. All of us at the Secretariat are really looking forward to working with you.”

Conclusion

Tributes were paid to Ricardo Corredor, Outgoing Chairperson of GFMD by Mira Milosevic, Ayman Mhanna, and Jaime Abello.

The Chair brought the 2021 GFMD General Assembly to close.

-- ENDS --

Executive Summary

Members of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) gathered during its quadrennial General Assembly to discuss the organisation’s strategy for the coming four years.

The strategic sessions were divided into two main sections:

Three in-person breakout groups focusing on:

1. Policy and advocacy

2. Knowledge sharing and coordination

3. Membership strategy, capacity building, and services

A hybrid gathering of all GFMD members to discuss key takeaways from the breakout groups.

Following the breakout groups and group discussion, the following conclusions were drawn:

The discussions from the breakout groups and hybrid sessions will inform GFMD’s upcoming strategy. The latest draft of the strategy can be found here.

Policy & advocacy

Rapporteur's comments

Knowledge sharing & coordination

Rapporteur's comments

Membership strategy, capacity building & services

Rapporteur's comments

Highlights of group strategy discussion

Mira Milosevic, Executive Director, Global Forum for Media Development – GFMD

Network Analysis Survey

GFMD conducted three surveys of the network, including members, donors, and other stakeholders. The network-wide survey uncovered varied opinions on how GFMD should operate. This is something that should be taken into account by members who operate at an international level – the interests of international members versus those who operate locally or regionally are often very different. The three most challenging issues identified by the survey were:

• Issues with securing funding

• Working in environments hostile to independent journalism

• Inability to diversify revenue

The survey revealed that these issues affect all CSOs. Disinformation and the exchange of knowledge were both high on the agendas of those surveyed.

Highlights from hybrid strategy discussion

Susan Abbot, Co-Chair Media Sector Development Working Group – IAMCR

As the breakout group focused heavily on the number of coalitions that GFMD is a member of, the core question that needs to be addressed is how many coalitions GFMD should join, what the organisation’s role should be, and are the coalitions supporting locally-led media development.

Jesper Højberg, Executive Director – International Media Support

The point that must be stressed is to increase emphasis on locally-led media development. How can GFMD members support this – either in an emergency or in a “window of opportunity”?

These are the coordination efforts that GFMD should be focusing on, but there is a need for improvement. The Lebanon coordination effort can be used as an example of best practice for coordinated support to locally-led and informed media development. The media development community is always calling on donors to coordinate their support, but in order for this to happen, media development organisations need to develop models that can be easily used, replicated, and showcased. GFMD does not necessarily need to be the body that coordinates this support, but members should be used to apply those models of best practice.

Guy Berger, Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development – UNESCO

If there are three strategic areas of work: emergencies, windows of opportunity, and participation in development fora, what are the priorities for the GFMD Secretariat and staff? Allocation of staff resources and time need to be considered in addressing these three areas. More emphasis should be placed on the emergency aspect of the organisation’s work. GFMD can do all three, but resources need to be allocated correctly. GFMD could pinpoint its service more.

GFMD has a two-sided market, the media developers and the media “developees”. GFMD can serve as the link and mechanism between these two – between developers and donors.

Caroline Vuillemin, General Director – Fondation Hirondelle

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has developed a set of media guidelines, setting a frame for the different entry levels into which media development can be enforced – from an individual level (namely journalists), to media houses and media organisations, to academia, legal and political environments, all the way to the societal belief and how much people value information and independent journalism. GFMD could stand to have an agreed approach similar to that of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. When there is a new project, initiative, or study launched in the sector, it would be valuable to see which of the aforementioned entry points for media development it is associated with.

Lars Tallert, Head of Development – Fojo

It is beneficial to separate media development into these three tracks (emergencies, windows of opportunity, and participation in development fora) as mentioned previously. However, GFMD does not need to see these as three separate entities, rather they are interlinked. In particular the first and third options are clearly linked. The third option is not solely attending conferences on sustainability, but it should also be related to how we work locally and include a sustainability perspective in everything we do and then communicate that notion upwards. When it comes to windows of opportunities, it may be less important as it is more difficult to draw clear cut conclusions, especially as they typically close quite fast.

Jeremy Druker, Executive Director – Transitions Online

GFMD has the potential to play a role in spreading the message of media and independent journalism as a public good. As GFMD organisations work on broader media development issues, it is important to try and pass along this message to the general public, to encourage an understanding of the value of independent media. This is beyond the capacity of a lot of organisations, especially smaller ones, which potentially shows an area of priority for GFMD.

Sameer Padania, Director – Macroscope

In GFMD’s target circles for policy and advocacy work – where there is an argument for a scale up in support for independent media – there is a lack of clarity of what is being asked for and who is asking for what. There are many different groups and coalitions which somewhat dilutes the message and the urgency of the need for support. GFMD can play a role in establishing clarity around the needs of the sector and the various groups working towards similar goals.

At a national level, there is an opportunity and hunger to engage with governments. GFMD can help facilitate the involvement of different coalitions and institutions at a national level, and to bring together those who are able to influence conversations at this level.

Courtney Radsch

There is a question of where GFMD adds value and where it can be particularly helpful in raising the visibility, influence, and impact of news media and media sustainability in these global fora. GFMD is already currently active in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) through the launch of the Dynamic Coalition on the Sustainability of Journalism and News Media (DC-Sustainability). GFMD could participate more in the DC-Sustainability, in particular by assisting with the production of its annual report which highlights case studies and issues faced by members relating to regulation of tech platforms and its effect on news media.

With the UN Secretary General’s renewed emphasis on digital cooperation, there is an opportunity for GFMD to elevate the issue of news media sustainability in the broader discussions around Internet governance, disinformation, and other similar issues.

Wesley Gibbings, Executive Member – Association of Caribbean Media Workers

The pandemic has changed everything about the way GFMD works, as well as the wider media development and journalism support community. All GFMD members entered the pandemic with pre-existing conditions, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. GFMD conversations need to focus heavily on this. The crises brought about and exacerbated by the pandemic have affected the GFMD community unevenly. In the Caribbean, priority issues relate to survival – people and organisations are looking to business models in order to survive.

The prevalence of social media and associated dominance of disinformation will also play a part in the struggles of media organisations. GFMD and its members need to continue looking at the regulatory environment for tech platforms that will take into account these aforementioned points as they play a part in the survival of independent media.

GFMD as a global organisation needs to make sure that it is shedding light on “dark pockets” in the global media development landscape. In the context of small island states, such as those in which ACM operates, the potential for achieving media development is significantly different to that in other environments.

Bill Orme

Considering the current situation in Afghanistan, GFMD could contribute a statement of principles of the moral responsibilities of media development groups that are working in dangerous and conflict situations. The crisis in Afghanistan has highlighted a dependency on, and responsibility for, Afghan journalists and media workers. When media development groups are involved in making new media organisations in volatile environments and training people who will then inevitably work in these dangerous situations, what is the community’s responsibility to them? GFMD could take leadership in articulating that in a particular way.

Jodie Ginsberg, Chief Executive Officer – Internews Europe

The quality of conversation differs dramatically if members are all present in a room, versus online. As GFMD’s strategy evolves, it must consider how it can be genuinely inclusive. It is very challenging to operate equitably if a portion of meetings are in person and a portion are online. GFMD cannot go back to “the old days” when those who are in a position to travel to international meetings and conferences can make decisions and those who cannot travel (due to finances or geographical constraints) are less involved.

Attendance

Steering Committee members

Apologies - Steering Committee apologies

• Owais Aslam Ali, Secretary-General, Pakistan Press Foundation

• Mijal Iastrebner, Co-founder and Managing Director, SembraMedia

Other attendees:

• Ricardo Corredo – outgoing Chairperson of GFMD. Ricardo chaired the meeting until the new chair was elected.

• All GFMD members and partners who attended the General Assembly in Tirana were invited to attend the meeting as observers.

• All members of the GFMD Secretariat attended the meeting.

Welcome

All members of the new Steering Committee who were present were invited to introduce themselves.

Roles within the GFMD Executive Committee

The GMFD Executive Director explained that the GFMD Steering Committee has three subcommittees:

• Executive Committee (which would be elected during this meeting)

• Membership Committee (elected at the next Steering Committee meeting)

• Policy and Learning Committee (elected at the next Steering Committee meeting)

6.9.2 General purpose of subcommittees

Steering Committee subcommittees shall play an advisory role to help guide the Steering Committee and Secretariat about matters falling within their mandates.

Subcommittees shall not have decision-making powers but shall be able to act in a more flexible and efficient way to advise the Steering Committee, Executive Director and Secretariat staff, in accordance with this Constitution.

The GMFD Executive Director also explained the roles of GFMD Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, and Treasurer.

• Chairperson: The Chairperson of the Executive Committee, also chairs meetings of the Steering Committee. They also act as a public figurehead for the organisation alongside the Executive Director.

• Deputy Chairperson: In the absence of the Chairperson, the Deputy Chairperson chairs meetings of the Executive Committee and Steering Committee.

• Treasurer: The Treasurer works with GFMD’s finance team on fundraising and business planning.

Discussion about the process

It was agreed that all candidates for all roles should come forward to allow the Steering Committee to consider the right balance of the Executive Committee.

Discussion about the roles and candidacy

The Executive Director encouraged women to run for positions on the Executive Committee, noting that:

• The last two chairs had been men.

• For the last 2 years, the Executive Committee had been exclusively male.

The Chair reinforced this point and added that:

• The previous three chairpersons have come from the United States, Europe, and Latin America and so the Steering Committee might want to consider a candidate from outside of those regions.

Candidacy for Treasurer

Ruth Kronenburg -- Director of Operations, FreePress Unlimited put herself forward for the position of Treasurer. There were no other candidates.

Candidacy for Deputy Chair

Three Steering Committee members put themselves forward to the position of deputy chair.

• Ayman Mhanna, Executive Director, Samir Kassir Foundation - SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom

• Jan Lublinski, Head of Department, Policy and Learning, Deutsche Welle Akademie

• Wesley Gibbings, Executive Member, Association of Caribbean Media Workers

Before voting commenced Ayman Mhanna withdrew his candidacy:

“There are amazing candidates here and I'm totally ready to support them. Our involvement in GFMD is continuing through the Lebanon coordination process and the other activities. So please, I would like to withdraw my name.”

An online poll was sent to all Steering Committee members.

Candidacy and election of GFMD Chair

The candidates for Chairperson were:

• Tabani Moyo - Acting Regional Director, Media Institute of Southern Africa - MISA

• Zoe Titus - Director, Namibia Media Trust

On invitation from the outgoing Chair, both candidates spoke about their vision for GFMD and the role of Chair for the next four years.

An online poll was sent to all Steering Committee members.

Working rules of the Steering Committee

It was agreed that as not all Steering Committee members were present and the new Chair was reaching the meeting via telephone, discussion of the rules of Steering Committees’ working rules with the Secretariat would be discussed at the next meeting of the Steering Committee.

It was agreed that a draft agenda and suggestions about working rules would be shared with the Steering Committee and the next meeting would take place the week beginning 18th October.

Conclusion

The new GFMD Chair, Zoe Titus, thanked the Steering Committee for their show of confidence.

“I appreciate it very, very dearly. And as I said earlier, I'm here to serve. [...] I look forward to receiving the minutes and updates of the proceedings over the last few days. And I look forward to working with the Secretariat of the rest of the membership. Thanks very much. And hope to speak to everyone soon.”

-- ENDS --

The sessions and breakout discussions around the 2021 GFMD General Assembly were attended by almost 100 participants either in Tirana or online.

In-person participants

Online only participants

GFMD members and partners that registered/attended via Zoom, included:

FAQS

What is the role of GFMD Steering Committee?

What does being on the Steering Committee involve?

What is the time commitment?

Is being on the Steering Committee a paid position?

Who is currently on the Steering Committee?

How long can a member sit on the Steering Committee?

A term lasts four years.

Who can stand on the Steering Committee?

Who can vote for the Steering Committee?

On October 1, 2020, the Global Forum for Media Development celebrated its 15th Anniversary.

• Thursday, 1 October – 15:00-16:30 CEST (UTC+2)

• Friday, 2 October – 09:00-10:30 CEST (UTC+2)

Agenda

Each day will included:

• A celebratory video marking 15 years of GFMD featuring speeches from current and former GFMD Chairpersons, Directors, and UN representative.

• A timeline of major events and accomplishments for GFMD over the past 15 years.

• Remembering Bettina Peters: Remarks from David Quinn (Director of Development, Thomson Foundation) and updates about memorial events.

• Announcing the Jeanette Minnie Award for Media Development Champions with remarks by Guy Berger (Director for Strategy and Policy (CI/SPO) and Secretary of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), UNESCO).

• Opening the vote on rescheduling the General Assembly for 2021.

• Testimonials and an open mic for participants who would like to say a few words about GFMD.

Celebrating 15 Years of GFMD

The statement followed an event on the evening of 30th September where three journalists from Afghanistan shared their experience of seeking exile in Albania and the persecution and hardship that Afghan journalists are facing.

One of the journalists told the meeting:

“We are concerned about the destruction of the Afghan media community's achievements over the past two decades. In the last month, more than 150 media outlets have closed. The Taliban detained, beaten and tortured dozens of journalists.

More than 100 journalists were forced to leave Afghanistan.

Among these journalists are the best, most experienced, and well-known Afghan journalists.

Some of those who remained in the country lost their jobs, and others are being forced to follow the Taliban's illegal orders and continue their journalistic work with fear and trembling.

The pressure and threat on the Afghan media community are too high and so, self-censorship among journalists in Afghanistan has reached its peak.

Afghanistan had the most unique and democratic and free media system in the region but currently, there is no longer free and independent journalism in Afghanistan.”

The Afghan journalists outlined the actions that are required to save Afghan journalism, protect lives, and provide the means for the continuation of the necessary provision of credible information to the people of Afghanistan.

The priorities articulated by the Afghan journalists who spoke at the meeting were for governments, donors, and multilateral organisations to:

Support for journalists and the Afghan media community:

Support for Afghan journalists in exile

Executive Committee

• Chairperson: Ricardo Corredor, Fundación Gabo (Colombia)

• Secretary-General: Jan Lublinski, DW Akademie (Germany)

• Treasurer: Thierry Vallat, CFI (France)

Asia

• Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) (Pakistan) - Owais Aslam Ali, Secretary-General

• The Indonesian Press Council (Indonesia) - Nezar Patria, chairman of the IPC's international network commission & Digital Editor in Chief at The Jakarta Post

Eurasia

• Independent Association of Broadcasters (Ukraine) - Kateryna Myasnikova, Executive Director

• South Eastern European Network for Media Professionalization (SEENPM) (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - Tihomir Loza, Executive Director of the

Latin America

• Association of Caribbean Media Workers (Guyana) -

  Denis Chabrol, Second Vice President

• Fundación Gabo (Colombia) - Ricardo Corredor Cure

Middle East/North Africa

• Samir Kassir Foundation (Lebanon) - Gisèle Khoury, President

• Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA)

  (Palestine) - Mousa Rimawi, Co-founder and Director

North America

• Internews (USA) - Jeanne Bourgault, President and CEO

• International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) (USA),

  Michael Mirny, Director of Information and Media Practice

Western Europe

• DW Akademie (Germany) - Jan Lublinski, Head of Policy and Concepts*

• French media cooperation agency (CFI) (France) - Thierry Vallat, Chairman and Managing Director**

Sub Saharan Africa

• Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA) (Senegal) - Diana Senghor, Founder

• Panos Institute Great Lakes (Burundi) - Cyprian Ndikumana, Director-General

Incumbent members

• FreePress Unlimited (Netherlands) - Leon Willems, Director for Policy and Programmes

• International Media Support (IMS) (Denmark) - Jesper Højberg (Denmark), Executive Director

• BBC Media Action (UK) - James Deane (UK), Director for Policy and Learning

• International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) (USA) - Joyce Barnathan, President

• Albanian Media Institute (Albania) - Remzi Lani, Executive Director