Staff highlights of 2022

Completed projects and the return of the Global Grants

Jas Chandler, Memberships and Projects Manager

2022, the year in which we celebrated the 100th anniversary of public service media, was once again a year filled with opportunities and achievements for PMA and its members. We responded to major geopolitical events around the world, welcomed new members, established new partnerships, and continued to support all our members globally. We worked and/or had exchanges with over 15 countries with our projects and grants alone.

Our project, “Protecting Journalists in Haiti and Countering Disinformation and Misinformation during a Pandemic”, concluded in March 2022, with several events and activities geared at building the capacity of the Haitian media landscape in the areas of ethical journalism, safety of journalist (especially digital safety for female journalist) and countering disinformation. The project produced a Crisis reporting toolkit and a Code of conduct on crisis. After a two-year travel hiatus, we were also pleased to announce in 2022 eight awardees of this year’s Global Grants.

We concluded the year with our project in the Caribbean, which saw a new Situation Report featuring eight countries being launched alongside an action plan, examining the relationship with media and information literacy, disinformation, and trust in news. PMA is grateful for the support received from our members, partners, and funding organisations for making all these projects & opportunities possible and we look forward to working with you all in 2023”.

A new platform to connect and engage members

Desilon Daniels, Advocacy Coordinator

In November 2021, PMA introduced a new format to offer more value to its members. PSM Unpacked – our members’ exclusive roundtable series – set out to gather employees at PMA member organisations to informally exchange knowledge and best practices, and discuss how their organisations manage operations across different subject areas.

This year, we followed on the success of our first roundtable with three more — one on digital safety for journalists(held in April); the other on emergency broadcasting (held in August); and our most recent roundtable on communicating PSM’s public value to audiences, held earlier this month.

While we had certainly hoped these roundtables would have been successful, we could not anticipate the way it would grow into something truly unique. From the geographically representative turnout to the highly engaged discussions, we’ve seen each roundtable grow from strength to strength. We’ve seen members share great industry insights but also deeply personal experiences. We’ve seen members turn up at 5 A.M. to speak openly and candidly about their challenges, successes, and hopes. Above all, we’ve seen members demonstrate why public media organisations are essential to society and democracy, regardless of where they are in the world. I can’t wait to see what 2023 brings with our fresh slate of PSM Unpacked sessions! I hope you’re just as ready as we are.

Public media continuing to innovate!

Chloe Howcroft, Research Journalist

Exploring public media’s biggest issues through a new medium

Harry Lock, Editorial Manager

In April, we launched our new podcast, Media Uncovered. Since then, we’ve released one episode every month, and explored issues such as what public media organisations can do to be more sustainable, how election results impact the fortunes of public media organisations, and how public media can best connect with audiences. For the last three episodes of the year, I’ve been taking a deep dive into media freedom: the state of it, what’s being done to bolster it, and what finally, what public service media organisations can do to positively impact it.

The podcast provides a great opportunity to hear from PSM leaders, executives, and staff. It’s been a privilege speaking to journalists on the frontline, fighting for an independent public broadcaster, at organisations such as RTV SLO (Slovenia) and EBC (Brazil). And it’s been fantastic to be able to interview so many of the top executives – the people who run and shape public broadcasting.

We’ve also taken the podcast on the road, with interviews being conducted in Malmö, Kuala Lumpur, and Tokyo. My hope is that the podcast will continue to grow and we will be able to tackle more and more the big questions facing public service media. That was the original intention of the podcast – to confront the many challenges facing public media and explore what’s being done. There are so many more issues to discuss, so stay tuned!

Support for public media needed more than ever

Kristian Porter, CEO

There has certainly been a lot to do in support of public media, but not least because of the challenges that continue to plague PSM and their primary role in underpinning informed societies and robust democracies. Throughout 2022 we witnessed growing cases of online harassment, physical threats and attacks on public media and their staff. While political interference is an ever-present threat for some, it is growing for others. Let us be clear – this is happening everywhere, even in regions where independence was once taken for granted. The most well-funded public broadcasters are feeling the squeeze, and others have been left scrambling to adapt to alternative sources of income, all while trying to maintain the values and services that make them so indispensable.

The situation is getting worse. New geopolitical blocks are forming, and it is increasingly necessary to ensure that politicians and publics alike understand the role that independent, accountable news media plays in society. It is exactly why collaborations among public media organisations, their supporters, civil society, associations, and academics are needed more than ever. It is exactly why we need a louder collective voice in support of trusted, protected, impartial, and independent public media. There is strength in numbers. It is exactly what PMA will strive to work towards as part of our new strategy in 2023-2024.

While the outlook is gloomy, I firmly believe that by working together, in solidarity, we can find solutions to many of these hurdles. And there are positive stories out there, which offer hope, and demonstrate public media is not antiquated, but a continuing bastion of creativity and relevance.