Challenging Authoritarian Censorship and Protecting Free Speech
Democracy relies on robust freedom of expression, independent media, and fact-based civic discourse to ensure accountability, expose corruption, and empower citizens. In today’s rapidly evolving information landscape, independent journalism faces numerous challenges, including financial instability, technological disruption, and increasing threats from authoritarian regimes. These pressures not only jeopardize the integrity of the media but also hinder the public’s ability to access reliable information, participate in democratic processes, and hold power accountable. To address these critical issues, effective support for independent journalism and the protection of democratic information spaces is essential.
To tackle these challenges, NED invests in independent media across diverse environments, including supporting the production of local news content in some of the most repressive societies, helping exile media reach citizens in closed countries, providing legal assistance to journalists, and safeguarding media freedom and free expression.
NED also actively engages with a broad coalition of stakeholders—ranging from civil society organizations and media experts to media support organizations and data scientists—creating a multidisciplinary network equipped to address the complexities of today’s information landscape. This collaborative approach not only strengthens the resilience of independent journalism but also fortifies the democratic information ecosystem against authoritarian threats, ensuring that free speech can thrive.
Grantee Spotlight
(Photo courtesy of Forbidden Stories)
The global challenge of violence against journalists and threats against press freedom continues. Journalists, investigative and news reporters alike, face physical and legal harassment—they are imprisoned, kidnapped, and murdered with impunity; and this violence is not limited to conflict zones. Collaborative journalism has emerged as one of the most effective responses to the challenges independent media confront to produce impactful investigations.
Forbidden Stories (legally registered as the Freedom Voices Network), a NED grantee since 2022, launched and is expanding the SafeBox Network (SBN). The network safeguards the working documents of investigations conducted across regions by at-risk journalists. If those reporters can no longer do their work, Forbidden Stories and its partners will investigate and subsequently publish their stories (with their prior consent and permission). In doing so, it expands the reach of the stories and sends a strong message to enemies of the free press: killing the journalist will not kill the story. The network has grown from a membership of 27 journalists in 2022 to 168 journalists and newsrooms from 25 countries across the Global South in 2024.
The SafeBox Network has nurtured an international community of journalists at risk that is breaking the isolation of its members and is fostering a sense of solidarity among them. The initiative has also begun to demonstrate its potential as a deterrent factor for violence, with testimonies showing that communicating about their membership in the network has helped reduce pressure on journalists and newsrooms and has emboldened members to continue their investigations and publish their stories by reinforcing their sense of solidarity and community. The network also successfully kept two investigations alive based on information safeguarded by the mechanism: the Rafael Project and its follow-up investigation, as well as a report on another case entitled, “The Front Companies Robbing the State of Mexico.” The Rafael Project, for example, was published by 32 media outlets in 21 countries in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia, reaching over 37.5 million people around the world.
International Forum Report: Coalitions for Information Integrity
Photo by OsakaWayne Studios/Getty ImagesIn an International Forum for Democratic Studies report, author Tim Niven explores how sweeping changes in the information environment are advancing the efforts of authoritarians to weaken democratic values, and howcivil society organizations are developing local coalitions as apowerful way to fight back.
International Forum Report: Gen AI and Information Manipulation
(Cover image generated by Adobe Firefly)A new report authored by Beatriz Saab exploreshow generative AI is helping authoritarians tip the scales against democracy and accelerate harmful narratives in a wide variety of country contexts, and how civil society organizationsare using the same set of tools to push back.
