Media companies and start-ups join WAN-IFRA Finnish innovation programme

2025-09-29. WAN-IFRA has announced a groundbreaking new media innovation programme teaming Finnish media companies and start-ups. It will officially kick off on 29-30 September in Helsinki, in partnership with Finnmedia, the Finnish Media Federation, and the Media Industry Research Foundation of Finland.

The light we cannot lose

On this World News Day, for too many people, the future is getting too dark to see. This moment is best described as living in a state of perpetual flux, of global uncertainty and deep, unsettling insecurity, writes Brank Brkic.

Your right to know: Why journalism and access to information matter more than ever

2025-09-28. Independent journalism and access to public information are mutually reinforcing: societies cannot remain informed or resilient if either is undermined, write David Walmsley and Tawfik Jelassi, who stress that defending the right to know is not optional.

The C.H.A.S.E Project: Fostering a Safer European Digital Space against Gender-Based Hate Speech

2025-09-25. Launched in March 2024 with the support of the European Commission’s CERV programme, “Combating online hate speech by engaging online media” (C.HA.S.E.) offers a multi-faceted approach to address the rise of online hate speech targeting women and gender-diverse individuals and posing a threat to equality, safety, and freedom of expression. WAN-IFRA has collaborated on the project since its inception and is now inviting any interested peers to an online webinar that will illustrate the project, the research behind it and the investigated solutions.

Turning news into action: Engaging Gen Z and Millennials locally

2025-09-27. Leaders of the award-winning, hyperlocal The Green Line share how they engage readers with news they can use in their daily lives; links they can use to fact-check information, and in-person community meetings to talk through the local issues that matter to them.

Journalism under siege

2025-09-26. It is getting harder every day to do the fundamental journalistic task of collecting facts and verifying information. It is also getting much more dangerous, writes Phil Chetwynd.

The unseen truth about global trust in news 

2025-09-26. Luba Kassova and Richard Addy argue that the widely repeated claim about global trust in news being in decline is misleading – and overly shaped by the United States’ experience.

Global lessons from a press in peril

2026-09-26. Martin Baron posts that democracy cannot exist without a free press – and a free press cannot exist without democracy.

Sweden’s VK Media is building its future on a young – and paying – audience

2025-09-26. Award-winning VK Media has been a respected news brand in the city of Umeå since its print-only days. As early as the 1990s, it was the first local media company in Sweden to put significant journalistic resources into digital local news.

Times of darkness

2025-09-26. Our current environment of misinformation, mistrust, the spread of illiberal politics through influencer-style authoritarians, and the erosion of democratic norms, is “less an era of change than a change of era,” writes Fernando Belzunce.