Challenges and strategies of media resisting shrinking civic space in Europe

Independent media face serious challenges as a result of democratic backsliding and the accompanying trend of shrinking civic space. This development can be observed in democracies under pressure across the world, including in Europe. Illiberal political actors seek to delegitimize their work and limit their ability to uncover information, reach an audience, and hold powerholders to account. But independent media are also a part of the solution.We found that three main objectives recur throughout the case studies. These are vital for media to resist shrinking civic space, and should be a given in a healthy media environment. In the conclusions we have therefore described the problems and identified the main strategies that media outlets can use to ensure these objectives:

In this study, we explore the challenges and strategies of independent media outlets in contexts of shrinking civic space. To this end, we present five case studies on a specific media outlets. These describe the overall political context for the media, the specific challenges that the respective media outlet has faced, as well as the different strategies that they have used to meet these challenges. The overall problem is situated within a set of concepts introduced in the first chapter, while the conclusions chapter brings together the lessons which can be learned from the case studies in one framework.

Independent journalism in contexts of shrinking civic space