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  • The Continent’s Lydia Nambiru (2022, Uganda/Africa)

    During a webinar on ‘Reclaiming African journalism in the the public interest,’ The Continent’s Lydia Nambiru was asked to define more clearly what those two things mean:

    Taryn Isaacs De Vega: “What is African journalism, and when is it in the public interest?”

    Lydia Nambiru: “[I]t very often depends on the moment or context, what the issues are and what the solutions are to particular communities. To reclaim it in the public interest would mean investing in and supporting African newsrooms and employing more journalists, especially women, and journalists who have worked in community radio stations.”

    Reported in the Mail & Guardian
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  • Ethical Journalism Network (2012, UK)

    The Ethical Journalism Network’s Wendy Collinson summarises their view on public interest journalism as follows:

    Put simply, the public interest is about what matters to everyone in society. It is about the common good, the general welfare and the security and well-being of everyone in the community we serve.

    The public interest is not just what the readers, listeners or viewers want either as consumers or people who want to be entertained.

    It is about issues which affect everyone, even if many of them are not aware of it or even if they don’t appear to care.

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  • Cairncross Review (2019, UK)

    The UK government department DCMS asked Dame Frances Cairncross to lead a Review looking into the sustainability of the local press in the UK. As with similar processes in other countries, while the question of financing and sustainability was core to her influential final report, the Review ended up having to consider much deeper questions and issues, including having to come up with a definition of public interest news:

    This Review argues that there are two areas of public-interest news that matter greatly. Each is often of limited interest to the public, but both are essential in a healthy democracy.

    One is investigative and campaigning journalism, and especially investigations into abuses of power in both the public and the private sphere. Such journalism is particularly high-cost and high-risk.

    The second is the humdrum task of reporting on the daily activities of public institutions, particularly those at local level, such as the discussions of local councils or the proceedings in a local Magistrates Court. Reporting on the machinery of government and justice matters at a national level too, but it is in greater danger locally, mainly because the size of the potential audience for local issues is so much smaller, and thus inevitably attracts less financial support from readers.

    Cairncross Review – Final Report, p17
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  • SANEF (2021 , South Africa)

    The South African National Editors’ Forum, or SANEF, is a powerful body in that country’s media environment, and in a paper on media sustainability, worth reading in more depth, it provided its working definition of public interest journalism as follows:

    “Public interest journalism refers to journalistic activity that is central to the democratic function and the protection and promotion of the South African Constitution, including investigative journalism, reporting on the daily affairs of public institutions, and local journalism focused on the generation of public interest stories in towns and villages and underserviced rural areas.”

    In fashioning this statement, it takes recent definitional work undertaken by the UK Cairncross Review and the Australian Future of Public Interest Journalism process into account.

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  • Accenture (2021, Brazil)

    The management consultancy Accenture was commissioned by Google to write a series of national-level reports to “analyse changes in news media revenues over time in order to understand the scale of disruption to news media revenues, and the drivers of that change”.

    This is the definition of public interest news that Accenture elaborated in their Brazil report – which, curiously, is the only country that gets a definition, and that in English, not Portuguese…:

    This report defines public interest news as news that supports public accountability, fosters an informed citizenry and facilitates public discourse.

    In supporting public accountability, which is part of the media’s role as the Fourth Estate, public interest news provides essential checks on power by filling the gaps in accountability that other institutions may not address. Public interest news
    plays an important role in facilitating democracy by exposing abuses of power and protecting community interests.

    Public interest news fosters an informed citizenry by communicating information on a range of societal issues, which enables people to participate in democratic processes and make informed decisions. Reporting on issues that affect the lives of people in all communities can improve social cohesion and foster a sense of shared reality.

    Public interest news facilitates public discourse by providing news that reflects a range of views. Taken together, diverse views are important for shaping future decision-making.

    Public interest news should achieve seven objectives

    The news media’s role involves more than just reporting on the issues. It is not enough for news organisations to report on issues of public interest. They should also represent diverse views, remain independent of government and corporate
    interference, provide high-quality journalism, be factually accurate and reliable, be physically and financially accessible, be relevant, and be seen and consumed by the general public.

    • A variety of opinions across news media is essential for democracy | plurality
    • Those opinions need to be reported independent of government and other
    dominant interest group influence | independence
    • In addition to a variety of independent viewpoints, the news supplied needs to be on topics relevant to the public | relevance
    • That relevant news needs to be accurate and reliable | reliability
    • The news needs to be more than accurate facts. It needs depth and context in order to inform the public | quality
    • News may meet all the above criteria, but it also needs to be financially and physically accessible to ensure it can be consumed | accessibility
    • The news can include a plurality of independent views, contain relevant, reliable and quality information, and be accessible, but it is also necessary that people choose to consume public interest news | reach

    It is only by meeting these seven key objectives that the providers of public interest news can be said to have achieved their broader purpose.

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  • Public Interest News Foundation (2020, UK)

    The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) was the first organisation in the UK to be registered by the regulator, the Charity Commission, with a specific ‘charitable journalism’ purpose.

    In the blog post announcing this achievement, the organisation laid out the formal definition of public interest news that the regulator accepted, and which is written into the organisation’s own Articles of Association.

    In PINF’s Articles of Association, “Public Interest News” is defined as “news and other information which is produced and disseminated to the public according to high standards of ethical conduct and best practice in journalism and which provides one or more of the following benefits to the public:

    · informs members of the public about matters of relevance to their role and responsibilities as citizens;

    · enables members of local communities to become aware of and understand matters of common concern to them as members of their community and which promotes their involvement and cooperation in such matters and community cohesion accordingly;

    · enables members of the public to participate in an informed manner in relevant democratic processes and, as a result, supports the legitimacy of the democratic process as a whole;

    · benefits the public by promoting charitable educational outcomes, such as improving public understanding of health and medical matters or the conservation of the environment;

    and specifically excludes material which is simply entertaining in nature, politically motivated, biased or inaccurate, or which fails to observe a person’s right to privacy.

    The new charitable object recognised by the Charity Commission is to “promote citizenship and civic responsibility and encourage and facilitate informed participation and engagement by members of the public in their communities, including by supporting the provision of Public Interest News by exclusively charitable means”.

  • NZ On Air Public Interest Journalism Fund (2020, New Zealand)

    The New Zealand Government earmarked $55m to support a 3-year fund to support public interest journalism.

    Here’s how its FAQ defines public interest journalism:

    What is the definition of public interest journalism?

    For this fund, public interest journalism is defined as ‘journalism that contributes to a person’s ability to function as a valued and informed member of the communities in which they live and/or work’.

  • Public Interest Journalism Initiative (2019, Australia)

    The Public Interest Journalism Initiative is a non-partisan thinktank working to bring about a diverse and sustainable public interest journalism landscape in Australia.

    It has outlined public interest journalism in technical reports, including one from which the definition below is taken.

    The definition of PIJ
    There are a variety of definitions of PIJ, and some of the details of what constitutes PIJ will be considered later in this report. For consistency with the recent work by the ACCC, we note the two following broad definitions.

    Public interest journalism has the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining public policy and issues of public interest or significance with the aim of engaging citizens in public debate and informing democratic decision making. (Public Interest Journalism Initiative).

    And…

    Journalism with the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining issues of public significance in order to engage citizens in public debate and inform democratic decision making at all levels of government.

    (ACCC Digital Platforms Inquiry Final Report, p.285)

    And in its FAQ, it summarises public interest journalism as follows:

    Public interest journalism is a public good; it is the accurate, reliable news and journalism at the heart of public discussion, diversity of voice, open justice, accountability and informed decision-making.

    I actually saved an earlier version of their definition – living proof that these definitions are rarely static – as follows:

    Public interest journalism is the news and current affairs media that has the primary purpose of recording, investigating and explaining issues of public interest or significance. It plays a critical role in ensuring that the community is well, and fairly, informed. Without it, citizens’ ability to engage in public debate and informed decision-making becomes absent.

  • International Fund for Public Interest Media (2022, Global)

    IFPIM, or the International Fund for Public Interest Media, is a new international fund backed by governments, philanthropy and other sources to address the global crisis facing independent public interest media.

    It hasn’t formally launched in full yet, but its current working definition of public interest media is on its FAQ as follows:

    Public interest media is defined as media that is free and independent, that exists to inform publics on the issues that shape their lives in ways which serve the public’s rather than any political, commercial or factional interest, to enable public debate and dialogue across society, and to hold those in power to account on behalf of the public interest. It implies a focus on ethical and credible media working in the interests of all people across all of society, not just those who have the power or money to pay for or influence media. Public interest media can be commercial, public service or community media and distributed online, broadcast, through print or other channels.

  • Charitable Journalism Project (2021, UK)

    The Charitable Journalism Project, a UK charity, comprises ‘journalists, funders, lawyers, academics and media experts working together to research, analyse, and advance public understanding of public benefit journalism.’

    The CJP here explains what it means by public interest journalism (as distinct from public benefit journalism).

    Journalism that serves the interests of the public, for example investigative work and local democracy reporting, is under threat.

    It’s often about topics that are essential for our democracy but that can be difficult or dry to understand. It’s hard, complex and time-consuming to do, but it often challenges the powerful and stands up for the powerless.

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