Internews- Closed states Programme 2020-2024 (2027)

Freedom of Expression is a Human Right and one of the pillars of Democracy. Freedom of Media across the globe is seriously declining. Monitoring undertaken by Freedom House shows media freedom has dropped to its lowest point in 13 years. Unprecedented threats to journalists and media outlets in major democracies and new moves by authoritarian states to control the media, including beyond their borders, are taking place. Social media on the one hand have allow ordinary people, civic groups, and journalists to reach a vast audience at little or no cost, but on the other hand it have also provided an extremely useful and inexpensive platform for malign influence operations by foreign and domestic actors alike. What was once a liberating technology has now also become a conduit for surveillance and electoral manipulation. In many countries journalists and other information activists need targeted, sustained support to withstand authorities’ tactics to censor, distort and block information. Internews has submitted a proposal to Sida for funding of their Closed State Programme (CSP) Strategy (2020-2024) with 75,5 MSEK. The proposed programme aims to reach the most vulnerable populations in repressive authoritarian states and conflict affected areas of the globe with independent and uncensored information. This will be done by providing local journalists and other information activists with cutting edge skills and technologies to safely and securely sustain the production and dissemination of independent, uncensored information and make it available to their audiences through new or traditional media and communication channels. Sida will monitor the development and the results of the support at programme level. Sida's support will, however, be earmarked for in accordance with the attached budget. The reason for this is that other donors' project support within the programme does not meet Sida's requirements for quality assurance, neither regarding annual audits nor thresholds for third party audits. As a result, Sida deems it necessary to manage the support in terms of contractual and audit terms as a project support with an earmarked Sida budget that is revised annually. The other major donors are the European Commission, the Netherlands, France and the United States and these support country-specific projects within the programme.