Navigating instability – A five-phase approach to supporting exiled media
In recent years, IMS has seen a steady increase in the number of its media partners forced to flee their home countries to avoid persecution and closure as the democratic space globally has shrunk.
IMS expects this trend to continue, with “exiled media” becoming the main – and, in some cases, only –source of public interest journalism for audiences in more and more countries.
This situation, along with the likely drop in development assistance by some of these exiled media’s main funders, calls for a more strategically coherent and creative response from IMS and our colleagues in the media development sector.
The briefing paper Navigating instability provides an initial framework for this response, based on learning from the support IMS’ programmes have provided to exiled media over 20-plus years.
With additional input from exiled media leaders, IMS’ Exiled Media Working Group has identified five phases of transition and evolution that media appear to go through between deciding to leave their home country and either returning home again or permanently settling in their host country; a long and often stormy journey, fraught with risks and uncertainty and involving many twists and turns.
Crucially, Navigating instability shows there is light at the end of the turnnel – there are media that survive exile and eventually return home, often stronger and wiser having spent years – sometimes decades – away and ready to play a leading role in transforming their country’s media, once opportunities allow.
This calls for a long-term approach that enables exiled media to chart their journey with less jeopardy and more certainty.
Navigating instability illustrates each phase of exile through the eyes of media leaders experieincing the situation first-hand, and outlines the support that IMS can provide media partners during each phase.
The briefing paper also presents a set of recommendatons to the media development sector, our donors and other policy makers on how we can collectively address the gaps in our support to exiled media.
