By Shawn McIntosh
Independent journalism shouldn’t be a luxurious. It is the muse of practical democracy, the primary line of protection in opposition to corruption and disinformation, and a cornerstone of peaceable, affluent societies. When journalism crumbles, democracy falters. When democracies falter, instability follows — as does violence, with alarming frequency. That makes supporting media not only a matter of free expression, however of worldwide safety and financial resilience.
This is not concept. It’s a actuality taking part in out in fragile democracies all over the world. A brand new report performed in Armenia by the Baltic Center for Media Excellence affords a revealing case research and a world warning As we marked World Press Freedom Day this previous week, it’s a becoming second to understand the basic issues besetting independent journalism in growing democracies, particularly with the dismantling of just about all U.S.-government media growth initiatives by the Trump Administration.
For many years, U.S. authorities applications like USAID’s media help portfolio have performed a quiet however indispensable function in conserving independent journalism alive. They’ve funded cybersecurity coaching, supported authorized protection for journalists below risk, financed infrastructure enhancements, and helped fragile shops construct sustainable enterprise fashions. These weren’t ideological initiatives — they had been democracy infrastructure, nationwide safety coverage in observe. And as we speak they’re being gutted.
Fueled by a wave of isolationist rhetoric and billionaire-fueled assaults on something labeled “foreign aid,” USAID’s media support applications, which instructional establishments like mine have relied on, are being defunded or dismantled altogether. The resolution could win short-term political factors, nevertheless it displays a profound misunderstanding of how world affect works—and the way democracy is defended.
Armenia could seem peripheral in world affairs. But as a small democracy wedged between authoritarian powers with little or no press freedom—Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Azerbaijan—it has grow to be a frontline state within the battle between democratic resilience and autocratic affect.
On the floor, Armenia’s journalism panorama could look sturdy. Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2025 noticed Armenia’s rating rise from 43rd in 2024 to 34th this yr—a rating much like Moldova and Slovenia, and never far behind a number of Western European international locations. (Shamefully, it’s additionally greater than 20 locations larger than the U.S. rating of 57th place (a drop of two locations).
But the index belies the numerous severe vulnerabilities confronted by journalists in Armenia as we speak that U.S. journalists usually haven’t needed to cope with to just about the identical diploma. Armenian journalism is being squeezed not by a single supply of repression, however by a thousand quiet breakdowns: authorized ambiguity, digital insecurity, monetary fragility, burnout, and rising bodily threat.
The Armenian Media Vulnerability Report 2025, co-produced by Armenia’s Media Initiatives Center, affords an in depth take a look at a number of areas that significantly threaten the viability of Armenian media.
What it finds is as illuminating as it’s alarming. Armenian media shops, lots of which do brave investigative reporting, are structurally unprepared for the challenges they face. Most lack backup energy or safe web. Many function with out disaster communication methods or relocation plans in case of emergencies. Journalists reporting from high-risk zones usually achieve this with out protecting tools, insurance coverage, and even evacuation protocols.
Critically, freelancers — who represent a significant a part of Armenia’s media ecosystem — usually work with out formal contracts. This creates a cascade of dangers: journalists could also be unpaid or unprotected; shops could not personal the rights to the content material they publish; and there’s no enforceable dedication to moral requirements, confidentiality, or knowledge safety. In a area rife with political interference, this type of informality could be deadly — not only for careers, however for public belief and journalistic integrity.
Ethical vulnerability is one other space of concern. Most Armenian shops lack conflict-of-interest insurance policies – which in the long term will hurt credibility. Journalists aren’t required to reveal private, monetary, or political affiliations which may bias their reporting. There are few clear requirements on accepting items or favors. And in a polarized setting, the place credibility is the whole lot, this lack of inside regulation can shortly result in reputational collapse—even when reporters are performing in good religion.
None of those points are distinctive to Armenia. This nation is merely functioning as a revealing microcosm of what’s occurring in media environments all over the world. From Eastern Europe to Latin America to underserved U.S. information deserts, most of the similar structural weaknesses are current. The distinction is commonly only a matter of what number of different constructions — political, institutional, authorized — could be relied on to support journalism. And we see these constructions being dismantled in lots of locations, not simply with the evaporation of support for world media growth.
When we abandon journalism, we don’t simply abandon reporters. We abandon the watchdogs who hold elections honest. We abandon the crimson flags that sign democratic backsliding. And we abandon the one credible voices able to reducing by disinformation in moments of disaster. Nature abhors a vacuum — and when reliable, reliable journalism shouldn’t be there that vacuum will get stuffed by state propaganda, by weaponized narratives, and by hostile actors who know precisely find out how to manipulate public feelings.
The Armenian report makes clear that saving journalism isn’t prohibitively costly. The needs are modest however pressing: back-up energy provides like UPS methods and Starlink connections to maintain newsrooms on-line. SecureDrop installations to guard whistleblowers. Contracts and protocols for freelancers. Training on moral practices, cyber hygiene, and AI verification. Safety kits and trauma support for reporters in battle zones. In brief, the constructing blocks of a occupation below siege.
Even small investments can have outsized affect. And the return on funding is big: resilient media that may expose abuse, maintain leaders accountable, and act as a stabilizing pressure in polarized societies. That’s not simply good for the international locations in query. It’s good for the world. Because democratic breakdowns don’t keep contained. They unfold, throughout borders and timelines, within the type of refugees, extremism, financial shocks, and geopolitical volatility.
We mustn’t wait for one more full-blown media blackout or politically motivated purge to behave. It’s time to cease treating media support as philanthropy or idealism, or anticipating market logic to resolve the problems. It is tough technique. It is early-warning protection. It is the low-cost insurance coverage coverage we’ll want we had paid into when democratic collapse comes to gather the invoice.
Let Armenia’s vulnerability serve not simply as a cautionary story — however as a name to motion. The world ought to care about growing the media in small, susceptible international locations feeling their means from darkness to democracy. If the U.S. authorities received’t do it, philanthropists and NGOs ought to choose up the slack.
Download the report right here.
Shawn McIntosh is Chair of the M.A. in Multiplatform Journalism Program on the American University of Armenia, and has lectured in Strategic Communications at Columbia University and journalism on the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and on the College of Saint Rose. He is a graduate (’99) of the Columbia University School of Journalism.