Working Group 3 - Forging Stronger Alliances for Information Integrity

Against the backdrop of the cancellation of the RightsCon 2026 in Lusaka, the mounting challenges to information integrity, independent media and digital rights, Working Group 3 “Information Integrity” convened at the annual meeting in Brussels with the aim of strengthening collaboration for support to independent public-interest media, digital rights, and engaging beyond this community to ensure these shared values are prioritised in investment agendas such as Global Gateway especially at the partner country level.

More than 50 working group members participated in this session. As the working group enters its 3^rd year, this session provided a collaborative opportunity to highlight and leverage existing knowledge and expertise in the group while jointly shaping the priorities and activities of the year ahead.

1. Presentation of the Mapping Report on the state of public-interest media amid the current funding crisis and a growing crackdown on journalists

Partner organisations of the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement for support to independent media presented the new report “The Authoritarian Utopia: The impact of funding cuts on independent media”. This report follows up on the mapping on the effects of the USAID funding cuts presented at the last Annual Meeting in September 2025 and seeks to broaden the scope to include funding cuts from other donors and to identify what types of journalism were unable to continue and what effects of this were. The report is based on a survey conducted in with respondents from Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan African, and Western Europe.

2. Building on what we have already done

One of WG3’s Thematic Leads, Global Forum for Media Development, presented the TED Toolkit which was published in May 2026. This Toolkit responds to the multitude of challenges faced by the media sector and seeks to equip policymakers, programming staff and other actors with concrete guide on how to apply the OECD Principles. It provides a role-based guidance, actionable checklists, practical recommendations such as do/avoid/consider, as well as links to evidence and case studies. Members are encouraged to circulate the TED Toolkit to their respective communities.

The Secretariat presented the repository on information integrity hosted by TED on Capacity4Dev. The repository was requested by members in September 2025 as a one-stop shop for key knowledge and evidence on information integrity. It has been developed using inputs from members who shared documents and/or responded to the survey sent by the Secretariat. It now hosts over 120 knowledge products distributed across thematic areas. The landing page also includes an overview of existing other repositories on the subject. Members are encouraged to share any additional knowledge products relevant to be added to the repository.

Clare Cook, International Media Support, presented the newly published TED brief “Private Capital Mobilisation in Support for Media” she co-authored together with Dr. Ole Dahl Rasmussen, and Dr. Giordano Zambelli. In the context of authoritarian control, platform disruption to audient relations, declining trust and stagnating subscriptions, all exacerbated by the constraints in ODA funding and the USAID freeze, the brief seeks to identify key entry points to mobilise private capital and provide an overview of the terrain of private sector engagement with the objective of strengthening coalitions, coordination and partnerships for greater results in mobilising capital for support to public-interest media.

3. Looking Ahead – Activities and Priorities for 2026-2027

In a collaborative spirit, the WG reflected on the experience and insights gained since WG3’s start in 2024, the discussion sought to identify what the WG should achieve by 2027. Some key themes include the need to align on mainstreaming information integrity in other sectors such as security, infrastructure, economy and trade including through support to concrete joint actions in partners countries; the urgency of more strongly connecting media support to accountability, rule of law and civic participation; and finally engaging in dialogue on digital resilience with private sector actors.

Based on these discussions a draft workplan of activities is being reviewing and finalised.