CNTI’s Summary
Independent journalism is critical to functioning democracies. As the global news industry largely continues to face financial struggles, governments have responded with a range of policy initiatives to provide economic support to commercial, public and local news media. Among these, recent media bargaining legislation in Australia and Canada has become the starting point for policy debates in many parts of the world. These policy debates bring several challenges to light, including tensions between the news as a public good versus a market product, the role of public policy in compensating for market forces and the risk of increasing media dependence on, and undue influence from, governments and platforms. Policy aiming to support the economic sustainability of news media cannot be one-size-fits-all; it must be context-sensitive and protect media independence, free expression and an open internet.
