“A free media is a free people”: Centre for Journalism and Democracy launches at the Media Freedom Forum

City St George’s, University of London hosted the UK Media Freedom Forum, a two-day event bringing together journalists, politicians and thinktanks to discuss the challenges in maintaining media freedom in today’s politically volatile world.

Fellow cohosts were the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), the Justice for Journalists Foundation (JFJ) and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute.

The Forum also saw the launch of University’s new Centre for Journalism and Democracy, a research centre connecting experts in journalism, politics and law.

The Centre does research and hosts events examining the threats to journalism globally, and explores new ways to address these.

The University has a strong track record working in the area, with many academics studying topics of media freedom.

Professor Mel Bunce, the Centre’s Director, is co-author of a new Index on International Media Freedom Support, for example, which ranks countries based on how they support media freedom beyond their borders.

Professor Julie Posetti, Chair of the Centre, carried out research with Associate Professor Lea Hellmueller, for UN Women, which found a chilling escalation of violence against women in the public sphere.

Dr Ayala Panievsky addressed the issues of media censorship under populist leaders in her book The New Censorship.

Complacency, the broligarchy, and the underfunding of public media

The research Centre was launched with an introduction from Director, Professor Bunce, followed by a discussion with speakers:

• Professor Julie Posetti, Chair of the Centre for Journalism and Democracy
• Professor Jane Martinson, Marjorie Deane Professor of Financial Journalism
• Professor Inderjeet Parmar, Associate Dean for Research in the School of Policy and Global Affairs
• Associate Professor Lea Hellmueller, Associate Dean for Research in the School of Communication & Creativity
• Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Advisory Board Member for the Centre for Journalism and Democracy

Professor Posetti noted that journalism and democracy are facing an existential crisis  that is being supercharged by the “broligarchy”, which she defines as a rise in authoritarianism coupled with the oligarchical power wielded by tech CEOs such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), called “complacency” the biggest threat to journalism and described a “serious vacuum in moral global leadership.”

Ginsberg said one of the hallmarks of increasing authoritarianism is a shrinking defence of principles like a free press and democracy, which she believes is happening in the US.

She noted tax breaks for newspapers and changes to charity laws could allow local nonprofit journalism to rebuild.

Professor Martinson discussed the role of the BBC in keeping people informed across the globe.

As a public service broadcaster – not a state broadcaster – the BBC is owned by all British citizens, who pay a licence fee to access it and therefore have a right to give feedback on its content.

Every ten years, the BBC renegotiates its Royal Charter, which is its constitutional basis and sets out the organisation’s mission, regulatory arrangements and board. Its current charter ends in 2027 and many from within the BBC are calling to make it permanent.

Professor Martinson appealed to the BBC to stop allowing political appointments to its board, and to recommit to maintaining its independence.

She said:

We have to fight for our public service media. In the UK, that absolutely means the BBC.

Let us not forget that it’s the most trusted news organisation [even] in America right now.

If we lose something like that, we lose something so fundamental to our democracy.

A free media is a free people.

Professor Inderjeet Parmar researches the global world order, with a particular emphasis on the US. He argued that the US media is a corporate media, with commercial pressures.

“Corporations have no ideology other than profit maximisation,” he said, “and will therefore lean in and lean out according to the political environment.”

Associate Professor Hellmueller discussed the issue of the global underfunding of public media. This issue was close to her heart, as two days later, her native Switzerland was due to vote on a large cut the public broadcaster’s licence fee.

“Research shows public media increases the likelihood that people will engage with politics and democracy. It’s essential to increase citizens’ trust in other institutions,” she said. “With disinformation becoming more cheaply produced with AI, a strong public service media sector can act as a protection.”

In the days following the Forum, Swiss citizens rejected the proposal.

Media Freedom Forum 2026

The Forum welcomed media freedom practitioners such as Sir John Whittingdale MP (Chair of the Media Freedom All-Party Parliamentary Group), Emily Thornberry MP (Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee), Pulitzer-winning journalist Carole Cadwalladr (who exposed the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal), Renaud Gaudin de Villaine (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), and Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC (human rights lawyer whose cases include journalists Jimmy Lai (Hong Kong) and Maria Ressa (Philippines)).

Forum talks discussed lawfare and strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), transnational repression, navigating AI, misinformation and disinformation, local news as democratic defence, and media literacy.