I do love sidequests, and this has been one of my favourites over the last few years: Researching Media Freedom in a Time of Crisis: Academic study of the Global Campaign for Media Freedom., which allowed me to work with a really fun team based in the UK ( City, University of London, the University of East Anglia) the Philippines and Sudan.

Pleased to have contributed this report, Reviewing the Global Campaign for Media Freedom in the Philippines, where I evaluate the work of the Global Campaign for Media Freedom (GCMF) in the Philippines, as implemented  by the British Embassy Manila and its partners from 2019 to early 2021. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 respondents, it finds that the GCMF’s work was considered relevant and timely and that public statements condemning attacks on media freedom were positively received and reportedly helped with morale among media workers. However, it is unclear if these statement  contributed to their desired outcome of ‘raising the cost’ for those who attack media freedom. Moreover, very few local journalists and human rights workers are aware of the Campaign or the small grants it awarded.

The British Embassy in Manila is aware of these limitations; and it has been able to maximise reach and relevance despite modest resources. The report suggests, then, that this first set of activities in the Philippines generally fulfilled its function as a pilot diplomacy campaign despite pandemic-related restrictions. Going forward, sustained and substantial effectiveness will depend on how the GCMF and the British Embassy in Manila under the new FCDO will decide on what constitutes ‘effectiveness’ and how it should be measured.

This case study provides early evidence of how a global multilateral advocacy campaign gets translated at country level, and suggests lessons that can be learnt for future programming on media freedom – both in the Philippines and globally.

The Philippines evaluation fed into this broader report the team released in Estonia in February 2022, Reset Required? Evaluating the Media Freedom Coalition after its first two years, which has partially been reformed into a solid academic paper published in the top Communications journal. Not my discipline, but still pretty useful, one hopes:

Scott, M., Bunce, M., Myers, M., Fernandez, M.C., (2022) “Whose media freedom is being defended? Norm contestation in international media freedom campaigns” Journal of Communication. Volume 73, Issue 3.

Everything available at pressfreedom.co.uk.