Just 15 days of global military spending could fund ‘healthy’ public media and secure information environments for citizens around the world.
In a landmark report published by the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM), UNESCO and Deutsche Welle Academy, the philanthropy outlined evidence on how journalism benefits society.
Every $1 spent on journalism can result in more than $100 in savings to the public through reclaimed funds, improved public services and reduced corruption, the report said.
Disinformation also costs societies an estimated $350–500 billion each year.
‘Independent journalism is one of the most effective and evidence-based defences against it,’ the report said.
It described the impact of journalism on public trust and governance as ‘cascading and compounding’.
High levels of media freedom tend to correlate with countries that ‘enjoy higher levels of democracy, and human and economic development; and they have lower levels of corruption, polarisation, conflict and poverty’.
High quality journalism ‘motivates audiences to engage with political processes, and turn-out to vote, and it is associated with higher levels of trust in political institutions.’
The report said independent journalism has a ‘strong stabilizing effect on national economies’, citing an analysis of 259 banks in 46 countries which found that press freedom is associated with lower systemic risk in the banking sector.
When a country moves down the World Press Freedom Index rankings, it loses 1-2 percent reduction in real GDP growth, which is ‘slow to recover’.
High levels of press freedom are also correlated with lower levels of corruption. In Norway, investigative journalists have been instrumental in detecting 25 percent of all fraud cases in the country.
IFPIM’s report noted that much more work needs to be done outlining the value of journalism.
‘Given the speed at which AI-fuelled disinformation is evolving, research on the role of journalism in helping to counter this challenge is a key priority. This research needs to pay particular attention to Global South contexts, which have been neglected within existing studies,’ it said.
Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance magazine
