The Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) has published the 2025 edition of its flagship State Media Monitor, a global study that tracks the editorial independence, funding and governance of state and public media worldwide. This year’s report shows a further decline in media independence, underscoring a continuing erosion that has persisted since monitoring began in…
In Asia, genuine editorial independence in public media remains a rare exception, as Rayhan Jasin reports in the latest commentary published as part of our State Media Monitor project. The article analyzes these seven outliers in Bhutan, South Korea, and Taiwan, examining how they protect editorial integrity amid both governmental pressure and internal threats. Bhutan’s Kuensel…
In many European countries, the independence of public service media rises and falls with the political tide. All too often, a new government doesn’t just take power—it takes the newsroom. One of the first moves after an election victory is to pack public broadcasters’ governing bodies with political loyalists, turning watchdogs into lapdogs. Yet, in…
The number of media outlets falling under government control continues to grow, while the independent public media sector is facing new threats. The government maintains a firm grip on state and public media, with over 84% of the 601 state-administered media companies in 170 countries covered by the State Media Monitor exhibiting a lack of…
Following two months of research carried out by local experts and journalists, Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) has expanded its State Media Monitor project, which researches public and state media across the world, to four more countries in the Caribbean: The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. The media organizations in the…
State Media Monitor, the project monitoring public and state media across the world run by the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC), is expanding its country portfolio in Africa. As part of the 2024 update, State Media Monitor has added three countries in West Africa, namely Cape Verde, Mali and Sierra Leone, expanding its coverage…
In a world dominated by government-controlled state and public media outlets, the looming specter of a series of intensifying conflicts presents an alarming peril to democratic societies just before a crucial election year, when people will elect their leaders in some 50 nations worldwide. In the past year, the government’s grip on state media has…
In a world dominated by government-controlled state and public media outlets, the looming specter of a series of intensifying conflicts presents an alarming peril to democratic societies just before a crucial election year, when people will elect their leaders in some 50 nations worldwide. In the past year, the government’s grip on state media has…
In one of the latest decisions made by Twitter under Elon Musk’s rein, as of Tuesday night, National Public Radio (NPR) has been labeled as state-affiliated media. Such a development questions Twitter’s motivations as it puts NPR in the same category with government controlled/funded propaganda outlets such as Russia Today or Xinhua News Agency, reports…
More than 84% of the world’s state media are government-controlled, according to a new report from the Media and Journalism Research Center issued today. The government control over the state media remained extremely high in the past year, according to data gathered using our State Media Matrix and published in a new report today. Some…