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These questions of independence are difficult enough when the operating environment is secure and governed by the rule of law. They become exponentially more difficult for journalists in exile supplying news back into their country of origin, or for journalists in their country of origin writing stories counter to the interests of the regime. Clare Cook writes about the dependency of these journalists on donor funding and the power relationships that develop between these journalists and their donors. She writes that for these journalists, economic necessity creates conflicts between the ideal of independence and the need to pay production costs. In the UK, there have been calls to further extend charitable status to certain classes of not-for-profit and non-political journalism that provides identifiable public benefit. Judith Townend considers the possible benefits and drawbacks of charitably funding and structuring journalistic operations. On a related theme, Jonathan Heawood, founder and chief executive officer of the new press regulator, IMPRESS, analyses a recent decision to confer charity status on Britain’s Independent Press Regulation Trust, which provides financial assistance to IMPRESS. Finally, Denis Muller gathers together these large themes in a discussion about the overarching ethical issue of conflict of interest, referring to case studies in the US and Australia which illustrate how new and old media alike are making ethical compromises in order to remain financially viable. This collection of shorter commentaries and longer research papers does not offer a solution to the financial difficulties faced by news organisations old and new, small and big. Many of these models for not-for-profit journalism have their own particular legal and ethical challenges and would only be suitable for a limited type of journalism. Nonetheless, we are optimistic that some of these developing structures offer an opportunity for both existing journalistic operations and new start-ups to free themselves from commercial pressures and help sustain a diverse and stimulating news media environment. At the very least, we hope that the ideas and evidence presented here offer a point of departure for further discussion and research. Note 1 See http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/newsonomics-the-halving-of-americasdaily-newsrooms/ Judith Townend, School of Advanced Study, University of London Denis Muller, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Richard Lance Keeble, University of Lincoln (joint editors of this special issue) Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016 5
Mel Bunce Foundations, philanthropy and international journalism News stories about international development and humanitarian crises are expensive to produce and frequently neglected by the mainstream media. This paper examines the private foundations that are stepping in to finance this news and their growing influence over journalism and international news content. Key words: foundations, philanthropy, international news, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, development journalism Amid tumbling circulations and declining advertising revenue, private foundations have emerged as a crucial source of funding for public interest news. A recent Foundation Center report (2013: 4) found that between 2009 and 2011, 1,012 foundations in the United States made 12,040 media-related grants totalling a staggering $1.86 billion. In addition to domestic news, foundations have poured considerable resources into the production of international news and, in particular, stories about development, aid and humanitarian crises that are seen to be commercially unviable. Today, the largest dedicated providers of international development and humanitarian news are all supported by foundation grants: the Guardian’s Global Development website is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Alertnet is funded by the Thomson Reuter’s Foundation; and IRIN, the world’s first humanitarian newswire (which for 20 years was funded by the United Nations), is now an independent entity supported by grants. In addition, numerous foundations offer competitive grants for one-off reporting trips and projects, including: the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the International Reporting Project, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation, to name a few. Despite the important role of these foundations, we know very little about their motives, how they operate, or the implications of their funding for journalistic practice. David Conrad (2015) provides a case study of a reporting trip funded by the Pulitzer Center. But as Browne notes, there have not been any systematic content analyses 6 Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016
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Page 4 and 5: Contents Editorial Looking beyond t
Page 6 and 7: EDITORIAL Looking beyond the tradit
Page 10 and 11: of the work produced by foundation-
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Page 18 and 19: Note on the contributor Dr Mel Bunc
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Page 24 and 25: democratic dissent’, while DeLuca
Page 26 and 27: ecording the interviews, I engaged
Page 28 and 29: spent two weeks collecting images a
Page 30 and 31: Although photographs of spirit bear
Page 32 and 33: up the article ‘Pipeline through
Page 34 and 35: Alexandra Garcia, iLCP communicatio
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Page 38 and 39: Dave Harte ‘Tell it like it is’
Page 40 and 41: Veronica Coatham and Lisa Martinali
Page 42 and 43: which content its audience is most
Page 44 and 45: in the 1990s and early 2000s. Borge
Page 46 and 47: in Leeds, he notes the valuable rol
Page 48 and 49: Yet the nature of the journalism at
Page 50 and 51: Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowl
Page 52 and 53: Unitec research colleagues; media p
Page 54 and 55: voice in seven unique contexts was
Page 56 and 57: therefore, challenging to strike th
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7 The Pacifica Mamas, ‘matriarchs
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sharing approach to collaboration,
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programme, and they wanted the spot
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and that I was entrusting myself to
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ecosystem (Cooren 2015b). In a 2015
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Saifoloi, Malama, Stowers-Ama, Jarc
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informed citizenry. Most see journa
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While there is no universally accep
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news organisation are decisions to
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is largely seen as unethical to ask
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open to paying for content. Others
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Conclusions Overall, oppositional n
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Foster, Michelle (2012) Calling the
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Judith Townend ‘Charitable journa
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In the second category, where the r
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Among the issues is the Charity Com
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House of Lords (2012) House of Lord
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press in a democracy to campaign, l
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The tribunal’s decision For the p
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charitable journalism may be recogn
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Denis Muller Conflict of interest:
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Tanner et al. (2005: 187) identify
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to its audiences. To engage in jour
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creating a commercial climate in wh
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that a sponsor would have no role i
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Items about Dove not labelled as sp
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their public-interest responsibilit
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Murtha, Jack and Gourarie, Chava (2
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Recognising the shadow elements of
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admits that ‘systematic’ may be
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Rather than ethics being an issue t
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