Journalists’ Views on International Media Freedom Campaigns: Empty Rhetoric or Strategic Narratives?

Abstract

What do journalists think of the international media freedom campaigns that aim to support them? How might their perspectives help us better understand the potential impacts of such initiatives? This article addresses these under-researched questions through interviews with 37 journalists in Sudan and the Philippines about their experiences with the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), a group of 51 states collaborating to promote media freedom. We found that these journalists were largely unaware of the MFC and highly skeptical that it would make a difference. Surprisingly, however, most were supportive of its work. This was because they valued the “strategic narratives” it provided and the signals these sent to their political leaders, as well as the “morale boost” they gave journalists. These findings highlight the importance of strategic narratives as a key component of international advocacy and demonstrate that audiences do not necessarily have to agree with them to support them. The findings also highlight the challenges of evaluating international media freedom initiatives.