The International Fund for Public Interest Media has today announced support to five new media organizations across Latin America, at a combined value of nearly US$2 million for the coming two years. This new commitment of resources brings the International Fund’s total investment in public interest journalism in Latin America to nearly US$5 million since it began making grants in 2022.

“The International Fund’s mandate is, on the one hand, to provide financial support to public interest media organizations which are providing essential journalism, and need support to avoid extinction or capture, or that seek to grow and innovate,” said Vanina Berghella, Regional Director for the International Fund in Latin America. “In parallel, we aim to invest in strengthening media ecosystems as a whole. Funding these new grantees advances both goals.” 

The news organizations which will receive new grant support from the International Fund have served audiences with independent news coverage for decades in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. The expansion of grant support to an Ecuadoran grantee represents a ‘first’ for the International Fund, and will sustain a trusted media outlet, GK which brings an explanatory, human rights perspective to coverage of transparency, politics, security, the economy and environment, and gender. 

In Brazil, the independent newsroom Agência Pública will use resources to experiment with promising innovations to build economic resilience, by developing new tools for revenue generation. In tandem, Agência Pública plans to strengthen their investigative coverage by expanding support and tools for young and diverse journalists.

Other grantees will use grant support to address structural market challenges at the national level which pose a threat to independent media: In Argentina, Asociación de Entidades Periodísticas Argentinas (ADEPA) aims to expand support to its membership of 180 media organizations, by strengthening expertise related to content ownership rights, algorithm opacity, and intellectual property rights, all critical factors in the economic resilience of independent news organizations. In Colombia, Fundación para Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) will design and promote a journalism fund to support media organizations and will also explore other forms of media sustainability, to reinforce a robust independent media ecosystem across Colombia.

In Argentina, the news organization Chequeado will make use of grant support to explore new revenue sources and innovation for a new monetization strategy. In parallel, Chequeado plans to strengthen their trusted fact-checking and investigative journalism function by establishing a Federal Network of Innovative Journalism in support of local media.

“As we scale up our support to new countries and grantees, it’s exciting to see the innovative approaches that independent media organizations bring to the table,” said Nishant Lalwani, CEO of the International Fund. “By giving these organizations the freedom and resources to design solutions, we can secure their future and the critical role that they play to ensure informed public audiences and democracies.”

About the International Fund for Public Interest Media: Founded in 2021, the International Fund for Public Interest Media is a bold, new multilateral initiative designed to support independent public interest media in low- and middle-income settings. The International Fund’s vision and mission is to ensure that people worldwide live in healthy information ecosystems, with access to journalism that upholds the public interest. To achieve this vision, the Fund aims to dramatically increase the financial resources available to support trustworthy, ethical, fact-based journalism, and to empower a resilient and independent media ecosystem to protect democracy. In addition, the International Fund’s mission is to foster a paradigm shift in how public interest media is resourced, with the goal of ensuring it is independent, inclusive and resilient. The International Fund supports media organizations and ecosystem-level interventions across four focus regions: Africa and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. To date, the International Fund has made 50 grants valued at US$15 million to media organizations in 22 geographies, since 2022. 

Further details on the Fund can be found at ifpim.org.

Media contact:

Rosie Vanek, Communications Manager: [email protected]

Vanina Berghella, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean: [email protected]