Freedom House's annual press freedom survey has tracked trends in media freedom worldwide since 1980. Covering 194 countries and territories, Freedom of the Press 2006 provides comparative rankings and examines the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information. The survey is the most authoritative assessment of media freedom around the world. Its findings are widely utilized by policymakers, scholars, press freedom advocates, journalists, and international institutions.

Media independence is central to the organization, make-up, working practices and output of media systems across the globe. Often stemming from western notions of individual and political freedoms, independence has informed the development of media across a range of platforms: from the freedom of the press as the "fourth estate" and the rise of Hollywood’s Independent studios and Independent television in Britain, through to the importance of "Indy" labels in music and gaming and the increasing importance of independence of voice in citizen journalism. Media independence for many, therefore, has come to mean working with freedom: from state control or interference, from monopoly, from market forces, as well as freedom to report, comment, create and document without fear of persecution. However, far from a stable concept that informs all media systems, the notion of media independence has long been contested, forming a crucial tension point in the regulation, shape, size and role of the media around the globe. Contributors including David Hesmondhalgh, Gholam Khiabany, José van Dijck, Hector Postigo, Anthony Fung, Stuart Allan and Geoff King demonstrate how the notion of independence has remained paramount, but contested, in ideals of what the media is for, how it should be regulated, what it should produce and what working within it should be like. They address questions of economics, labor relations, production cultures, ideologies and social functions.

With contributions from leading researchers from different regions of Europe and the United States, the publication's scope is unique in its comprehensiveness in relation to a specific topic and its innovative approach. Contributions go beyond existing theory in exploring methodologies to operationalize and measure formal and actual levels of independence of media and its regulatory agencies. Two major European research networks (INDIREG and MEDIADEM) collaborate and make substantial contributions to theory and research. Media independence is vital for democracies, and so is the independence of the regulatory bodies governing it. 'The independence of the media and its regulatory agencies' explores the complex relationship between media governance and independence of media regulatory authorities within Europe, which form part of the wider framework in which media's independence may flourish or fade.

Who controls the media today? There are many media systems across the globe that claim to be free yet whose independence has been eroded. As demagogues rise, independent voices have been squeezed out. Corporate-owned media companies that act in the service of power increasingly exercise soft censorship. Tech giants such as Facebook and Google have dramatically changed how people access information, with consequences that are only beginning to be felt. This book features pathbreaking analysis from journalists and academics of the changing nature and peril of media capture—how formerly independent institutions fall under the sway of governments, plutocrats, and corporations. Contributors including Emily Bell, Felix Salmon, Joshua Marshall, Joel Simon, and Nikki Usher analyze diverse cases of media capture worldwide—from the United Kingdom to Turkey to India and beyond—many drawn from firsthand experience. They examine the role played by new media companies and funders, showing how the confluence of the growth of big tech and falling revenues for legacy media has led to new forms of control. Contributions also shed light on how the rise of right-wing populists has catalyzed the crisis of global media. They also chart a way forward, exploring the growing need for a policy response and sustainable models for public-interest investigative journalism. Providing valuable insight into today’s urgent threats to media independence, Media Capture is essential reading for anyone concerned with defending press freedom in the digital age.

The annual Freedom of the Press, which tracks trends in media freedom worldwide, appears for the first time as an expanded book. Covering 192 countries, the survey provides numerical ratings of the level of press freedom in each country. The Freedom House survey team also assesses the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information. Essays include a 25-year retrospective of press freedom and a timely analysis of the upcoming World Summits on the Information Society (2003 and 2005). Academics in several disciplines, governments, the news media, and the World Bank employ Freedom of the Press as a standard reference.

A sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails argues the dependence of reporters on official sources disastrously thwarts coverage of dissenting voices from outside the Beltway. The result is both an indictment of official spin and an urgent call to action that questions why the mainstream press failed to challenge the Bush administration’s arguments for an invasion of Iraq or to illuminate administration policies underlying the Abu Ghraib controversy. Drawing on revealing interviews with Washington insiders and analysis of content from major news outlets, the authors illustrate the media’s unilateral surrender to White House spin whenever oppositional voices elsewhere in government fall silent. Contrasting these grave failures with the refreshingly critical reporting on Hurricane Katrina—a rare event that caught officials off guard, enabling journalists to enter a no-spin zone—When the Press Fails concludes by proposing new practices to reduce reporters’ dependence on power. “The hand-in-glove relationship of the U.S. media with the White House is mercilessly exposed in this determined and disheartening study that repeatedly reveals how the press has toed the official line at those moments when its independence was most needed.”—George Pendle, Financial Times “Bennett, Lawrence, and Livingston are indisputably right about the news media’s dereliction in covering the administration’s campaign to take the nation to war against Iraq.”—Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune “[This] analysis of the weaknesses of Washington journalism deserves close attention.”—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books

This book explores the different ways Francophone research on news media has faced the challenges of dependence and independence from three complementary perspectives. The first is economics - how can sustainable business models be developed and to what extent can crowdfunding help to maintain the financial and editorial independence of newsrooms? Secondly, in a time where the role of journalism in the public sphere is more questioned than ever, the authors evaluate to what extent news media can embody the needs of their readers. Thirdly, the authors consider the historical and political context of publication in the light of the ‘Arab Spring’. This book deals with major, contemporary evolutions of news media, bringing together research that considers the media in France, Canada, and the Arab region (notably Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt). Using numerous case studies, this book helps to define how complex the question of independence is today.

Evangelia Psychogiopoulou brings together distinguished scholars across a range of academic disciplines to investigate the media's freedom and independence, and the media policy processes, institutional spaces, regulatory practices and instruments that can support the development of free and independent media in Europe.

In the face of such challenges, this new volume in the World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development series offers a critical analysis of new trends in media freedom, pluralism, independence and the safety of journalists.

This annual press freedom survey, now covering 195 countries and territories, has tracked trends in media freedom worldwide sine 1980. It provides comparative rankings and examines the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information.