Speaking: Rawan Damen (Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism)

Public interest journalism is under siege across the world and news organisations must band together to ensure its survival. That was the top line of a series of back-to-back sessions at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia last week (9 April).

17 speakers looked at the increasingly important role of media hubs, amid the compounded challenges of funding cuts to foreign aid, suffering traditional business models and vulnerable media in exile, in a panel discussion organised by Report for the World (RFTW).

Media hubs offer invaluable funding, resources and connections for news organisations in challenging media markets.

Over the past 18 months, the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) has worked to support vulnerable Palestinian journalists in Gaza. It has to look outside Palestine for support, by working in partnership with Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, says Raman Damen, director-general, ARIJ.

ARIJ has also successfully connected Palestinian fact-checkers with Arab and international counterparts to combat misinformation about Palestine and Lebanon. Its Gaza investigations, led by executive editor Hoda Osman, required collaboration with international media outlets like Forbidden Stories, the Guardian, Paper Trail, France 24, AFP, and Bellingcat.

Another is International Media Support (IMS) which helps journalists in more than 30 countries. Programme manager, Che De los Reyes, identified two concrete approaches to strengthen regional media hubs.

First is addressing dwindling funding by developing alternatives to Western support. IMS is working on a public journalism fund in the Philippines focused on "unlocking local capital" from the private sector and local charities. Similar initiatives are underway in Indonesia, reducing dependence on Western funding sources – a strategy accelerated by the recent USAID funding freeze.

Second is innovation in response to disinformation challenges, particularly in the Philippines, which De los Reyes describes as "patient zero" for disinformation and one of the world's largest consumers of social media. Though there are mixed results.

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