EU4IM encourages fact based, gender-inclusive and reliable public interest journalism, exerting its watchdog role. It contributes to boosting the resilience of the media by strengthening its financial sustainability. Our approach is if independent media journalists can produce high-quality, engaging content. They will be more competitive in the media market, leading to bigger consumption of reliable information and, by extension, greater societal resilience and government accountability. The programme’s activities include online and face-to-face training, on-the-job and individual mentoring to improve editorial content or enhance management and marketing skills, develop new revenue streams, an increased understanding of audiences, and support necessary technological investments. Furthermore, content production, emergency support and peer-to-peer networking are also offered, together with access to research studies and reports on media development activities relevant to the region’s stakeholders.

The Programme’s overall objective is to contribute to democratisation and empower citizens in the Eastern Neighbourhood.

The specific objectives are:

– To improve the offer of fact-based, good-quality media content with additional, more diverse content.
– To improve the financial sustainability of independent, commercial media across the Eastern Neighbourhood.

– Increased offer of fact-based, good-quality media content in the Eastern Neighbourhood region, including investigative journalism.
– More professional editorial processes of targeted media outlets, including improved fact-checking policies and higher quality news reporting delivered by journalists.
– Improved gender equality in the media sector and gender-sensitive reporting
– Better trained editorial and management staff in commercial media training and more diversified revenue sources.
– A reinforced network of independent journalists and media professionals actively used as a professional resource and networking platform.