Independent media is mass media, such as television, newspapers, or Internet-based publications, that is free of influence by government or corporate interests. Independence stands as a cornerstone principle within media policy and the freedom of the press, representing an "essentially contested concept". The concept is often used to denote, declare, or claim independence from state-control, market forces, or conventions, and media organisations and individuals assert their legitimacy and credibility through it.
In various discussions, such as those regarding the role of media within authoritarian societies or the relevance of European public service broadcasters or the "alternative press", the concept of independence is interpreted diversely. In international development, the term "independent media" is used for the development of new media outlets, particularly in areas where there is little to no existing media presence. Additionally, digital transformations tend to compromise the press as a common good (with a blurring of the difference between journalism and advertising) by the technological, political and social dynamics that it brings. For this reason other norms, such as transparency and participation, may be considered to be more relevant.Hallin, Daniel C. 2006. "The Passing of the 'High Modernism' of American Journalism Revisited". Political Communication Report 16 (1).McBride, Kelly, and Tom Rosenstiel. 2013. "Introduction: New Guiding Principles for a New Era of Journalism". In The New Ethics of Journalism: Principles for the 21st Century, edited by Kelly McBride and Tom Rosenstiel, 1–6. London: Sage
Research has found independent media plays an important role in improving government accountability and reducing corruption.
Overview Media regulators' impact on the editorial independence of the media, which is still deeply entwined with political and economic influences and pressures. Private media – functioning outside of governments' control and with minimum official regulation – are still dependent on advertising support, risking potential misuse of advertisers as a political tool by larger advertisers such as governments. New technologies have added new meaning to what constitutes media independence. The collection, selection, aggregation, synthesis and processing of data are now increasingly delegated to forms of automation. While the sharing of social media posts is crucial in elevating the importance of certain news sources or stories, what appears in individual news feeds on platforms such as Facebook or news aggregators such as Google News is the product of other forces as well. This includes algorithmic calculations, which remove professional editorial judgment, in favor of past consumption patterns by the individual user and their social network. In 2016, users declared preferring algorithms over editors for selecting the news they wanted to read.Levy, David, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Nic Newman, and Richard Fletcher. 2016. Reuters Institute Digital News Report. Digital News Report. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Available at https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/. Accessed 22 January 2017. Despite apparent neutrality algorithms may often compromise editorial integrity, and have been found to lead to discrimination against people based on their race, socioeconomic situation and geographic location.Turow, Joseph. 2013. Branded Content, Media Firms, and Data Mining: An Agenda for Research. Presentation to ICA 2013 Conference, London, UK. Available at http://web.asc.upenn.edu/news/ICA2013/Joseph_Turow.pdf.Diakopoulos, Nicholas. 2014. Algorithmic Accountability: Journalistic investigation of computational power structures. Digital Journalism 3 (3): 398–415. Anya Schiffrin says that despite the initial optimism that social media would reduce such tendencies by enabling broader citizen participation in media, there are growing signals that social media are similarly susceptible to political capture and polarization, further impacting on the trust that users may have towards information on these platforms.
Regulation
The role of regulatory authorities (license broadcaster institutions, content providers, platforms) and the resistance to political and commercial interference in the autonomy of the media sector are both considered as significant components of media independence. In order to ensure media independence, regulatory authorities should be placed outside of governments' directives. this can be measured through legislation, agency statutes and rules.
Government regulations
Licensing The process of issuing licenses in many regions still lacks transparency and is considered to follow procedures that are obscure and concealing. In many countries, regulatory authorities stand accused of political bias in favor of the government and ruling party, whereby some prospective broadcasters have been denied licenses or threatened with the withdrawal of licenses. In many countries, diversity of content and views have diminished as monopolies, fostered directly or indirectly by States. This not only impacts on competition but leads to a concentration of power with potentially excessive influence on public opinion.Hanretty, Chris. 2014. Media outlets and their moguls: Why concentrated individual or family ownership is bad for editorial independence. European Journal of Communication 29 (3): 335–350. Buckley et al. cite failure to renew or retain licenses for editorially critical media; folding the regulator into government ministries or reducing its competencies and mandates for action; and lack of due process in the adoption of regulatory decisions, among others, as examples in which these regulators are formally compliant with sets of legal requirements on independence while enforcing political agendas.Buckley, Steve, Kreszentia Duer, Toby Mendel, and Sean O. Siochru. 2008. Broadcasting, Voice, and Accountability : A Public Interest Approach to Policy, Law, and Regulation. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Government endorsed appointments State control is also evident in the increasing politicization of regulatory bodies operationalized through transfers and appointments of party-aligned individuals to senior positions in regulatory authorities.
Internet regulation Governments worldwide have sought to extend regulation to internet companies, whether connectivity providers or application service providers, and whether domestically or foreign-based. The impact on journalistic content can be severe, as internet companies can err too much on the side of caution and take down news reports, including algorithmically, while offering inadequate opportunities for redress to the affected news producers.
Self-regulation
Regional In Western Europe, self-regulation provides an alternative to state regulatory authorities. In such contexts, newspapers have historically been free of licensing and regulation, and there has been repeated pressure for them to self-regulate or at least to have in-house ombudsmen; however, it has often been difficult to establish meaningful self-regulatory entities. In many cases, self-regulations exist in the shadow of state regulation, and is conscious of the possibility of state intervention. In many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, self-regulatory structures seem to be lacking or have not historically been perceived as efficient and effective.Fengler, Susanne, Tobias Eberwein, Salvador Alsius, Olivier Baisnée, Klaus Bichler, Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska, Huub Evers, et al. 2015. How effective is media self-regulation? Results from a comparative survey of European journalists. European Journal of Communication 30 (3): 249–266. The rise of satellite delivered channels, delivered directly to viewers, or through cable or online systems, renders much larger the sphere of unregulated programming. There are, however, varying efforts to regulate the access of programmers to satellite transponders in parts of the Western Europe and North American region, the Arab region and in Asia and the Pacific. The Arab Satellite Broadcasting Charter was an example of efforts to bring formal standards and some regulatory authority to bear on what is transmitted, but it appears to not have been implemented.UNESCO. 2014. World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development. Paris: UNESCO Available at https://en.unesco.org/world-media-trends-2017/previous-editions
International organizations and NGOs Self-regulation is expressed as a preferential system by journalists but also as a support for media freedom and development organizations by intergovernmental organizations such as UNESCO and non-governmental organizations. There has been a continued trend of establishing self-regulatory bodies, such as press councils, in conflict and post-conflict situations. Major internet companies have responded to pressure by governments and the public by elaborating self-regulatory and complaints systems at the individual company level, using principles they have developed under the framework of the Global Network Initiative. The Global Network Initiative has grown to include several large telecom companies alongside internet companies such as Google, Facebook and others, as well as civil society organizations and academics. The European Commission’s 2013 publication, ICT Technology Sector Guide on Implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, impacts on the presence of independent journalism by defining the limits of what should or should not be carried and prioritized in the most popular digital spaces.European Commission. Shift and Institute for Human Rights and Business, 2013. https://www.ihrb.org/pdf/eu-sector-guidance/EC-Guides/ICT/EC-Guide_ICT.pdf
Private sector Public pressure on technology giants has motivated the development of new strategies aimed not only at identifying ‘fake news’, but also at eliminating some of the structural causes of their emergence and proliferation. Facebook has created new buttons for users to report content they believe is false, following previous strategies aimed at countering hate speech and harassment online. These changes reflect broader transformations occurring among tech giants to increase their transparency. As indicated by the Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index, most large internet companies have reportedly become relatively more forthcoming in terms of their policies about transparency in regard to third party requests to remove or access content, especially in the case of requests from governments.Ranking Digital Rights. 2015. Corporate Accountability Index. Available at https://rankingdigitalrights.org/index2015/.
Ranking Digital Rights. 2017. Corporate Accountability Index. Available at https://rankingdigitalrights.org/index2017/. At the same time, however, the study signaled a number of companies that have become more opaque when it comes to disclosing how they enforce their own terms of service, in restricting certain types of content and account.
Fact-checking and news literacy