Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development

PRIMED is a 3-year programme to support the provision of public interest media in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, which began in October 2020.

Welcome

The GFMD Secretariat uses this space to manage GFMD's involvement as a technical partner in PRIMED - Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development.

In this resource space, you will find meeting reports, learning briefings and other project documents and information related to our work.

For the latest news and updates from GFMD go to https://gfmd.info/news/

What is PRIMED?

The Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development (PRIMED) consortium is working with media partners in Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia – three very different contexts – on editorial development, training and support to build resilience to political and economic pressures.

What is the problem that PRIMED addresses?

Public interest media are vital to open, just societies. They provide citizens with reliable news and information, hold the powerful to account and provide a platform for debate.

How will PRIMED tackle these challenges?

PRIMED will address the challenges to public interest media at both outlet and environment level.

  • It seeks to build the resilience of media to political and economic pressures that are undermining viability.

  • It supports the development of information ecosystems that enable a better flow of trusted public interest media content in three countries with different media environments: Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.

  • Gender equality and inclusion will be integrated across the programme.

We are supporting media partners to develop stronger audience insights and more professional and relevant content, more efficient production, and broader offerings across multiple, revenue-generating platforms. This approach makes the case for media in the public interest as key to economic viability, contributing to a future in which media outlets may be financially independent and less prone to co-option.

What countries will PRIMED operate in?

Why those countries?

Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone were selected for the diversity of their media environments. They represent different market sizes and face varying degrees of challenges around media restrictions, political will and economic conditions.

Not all consortium partners’ approaches are relevant in all countries. Consequently, different combinations of partners will work in each country providing only the most relevant type of support.

The project will prioritise support to media outlets that are “independent” and already have a clear public interest remit. However, if few such media can be identified in a country, the programme will identify media organisations providing some public interest content and seek to strengthen and expand that element within the larger organisation.

Each country has developed its own targeted approach and programme implementation will be led by local teams.

What will PRIMED do in each country?

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, where rapid economic progress toward lower-middle-income status has not been matched by growth in public-interest media, PRIMED is working with the sector overall to help improve ethical standards and support local coalitions to advocate for media freedom.

This approach makes the case for media in the public interest as key to economic viability, contributing to a future in which media outlets may be financially independent and less prone to co-option.

Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, PRIMED supports efforts to establish a new public interest media tradition in a country that has been witnessing a democratic transition but remains fractured along political, economic and ethnic lines.

PRIMED is helping to build technical expertise, professional editorial standards, and stronger institutional and financial foundations to help develop existing media partners into public-interest models.

Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, where the lively and diverse media scene is in economic crisis, and rarely a source of trusted and impartial information, PRIMED provides intensive support to selected media outlets to improve professional standards, audience understanding and operating models and skills.

Amid attempts to introduce independent media regulation, PRIMED helps to inform, support and moderate dialogue among sector stakeholders to help shape legislative, regulatory and legal processes toward a more independent, and more trusted and impartial, media environment.

Who is involved?

PRIMED is implemented by a consortium of media support organisations with expertise in different aspects of media and development.

Led by BBC Media Action, core consortium partners include:

Further support is being provided by:

Who funds PRIMED?

PRIMED is funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

  • Read BBC Media Action's November 2020 press release formally launching the project.

  • And BBC Media Action's press release from the UK- and Canada-hosted Global Conference for Media Freedom conference in July 2019.

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