Media and Journalism Research Center

What does protecting journalists in times of war really mean?
A new report by Maharat Foundation examines the urgent need to protect journalists covering armed conflicts.
The report documents the risks journalists faced during the Israeli war on Lebanon, including direct attacks, harassment, and domestic pressures that hindered reporting and restricted access to information. Many also experienced displacement and harsh living conditions, further limiting their ability to work.
It warns that attacks on journalists not only endanger media workers but also undermine the public's right to information and the documentation of wartime violations.
While international conventions and legal frameworks exist to protect journalists, the report argues that implementation remains weak and offers key recommendations to strengthen protections.
From a European perspective, Marius Dragomir, our director, explains in a recorded video the international agreements that underpin press freedom protections. He also highlights the policies and mechanisms developed by the Council of Europe and the European Union to improve journalists' safety and strengthen responses to threats against the media.
Alongside Marius, the report features interventions from Nizar Saghieh (Legal Agenda), Jad Shahrour (Samir Kassir Foundation), Nagham Rabih, Mohamad Kleit, and Mohamad Zanaty.

This report was prepared as part of the project “Support to Media Reform in Lebanon to Enhance Freedom of Expression,” with the support of the European Union.

Media Crews Under Threat: Between the Fires of War and Domestic Pressures | Maharat Foundation Media Crews Under Threat: Between the Fires of War and Domestic Pressures

Most people won't meet quantum computing through a big breakthrough, but through a bank login, a phone update, a digital certificate renewing in the background.
Our Signal #7 of the Secure Internet Observatory looks at the latest development in the quantum tech: security firms shipping tools to help organisations find their own encryption, governments turning post-quantum security into a supplier requirement, Europe naming who will coordinate its quantum networks.
All of it this is infrastructure. And infrastructure decides who is protected by default, who has to pay, and who waits for a vendor to move.
With practical questions for newsrooms and eight story angles for reporters.
Available now on MJExchange.

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In a recent Journalism Studies article, Jacob Nelson and Seth Lewis argue that simply being transparent is not enough to rebuild public trust in journalism. Instead, they suggest that news organizations should practice what they call capital transparency—being open about how financial considerations shape their work and acknowledging the tension between commercial pressures and journalism's public service mission.

The authors recognize that this kind of honesty may expose uncomfortable truths and is unlikely to restore trust in the news industry overnight. But they argue it can make individual journalists more credible, help audiences distinguish outlets that genuinely serve the public interest from those driven mainly by profit, and, in the long run, strengthen trust in public interest journalism.

Our colleague Robert Nemeth has summarized the article for the Journalism Funders Forum newsletter, which our center curates in partnership with Philea - Philanthropy Europe Association.

Show Them the Money: The Case for Capital Transparency in Journalism - Journalism Funders Forum In a research article in Journalism Studies, Jacob L. Nelson and Seth C. Lewis argue that transparency alone cannot rebuild trust; news organisations must

What are the limits of regulating AI-generated political campaign speech in Hungary? In a new article for Frontiers, our expert Zsuzsa Detrekoi explores the legal and regulatory challenges posed by AI-generated, fear-based political communication.

Using the example of a widely shared Hungarian election campaign video depicting a fictional wartime scenario, the article examines how emotionally charged AI-generated content can frame electoral choices as matters of survival. It also considers what this means for the boundaries of lawful political speech in today's digital media landscape.

The article argues that the key issue is not whether fear-based campaign speech should be banned, but whether existing regulatory frameworks are equipped to address the increasingly sophisticated forms of AI-generated political communication in digitally mediated environments.

Frontiers | Fear, war, and algorithms: the limits of regulating AI-generated campaign speech in Hungary This article examines the regulatory challenges posed by AI-generated, fear-based political communication through the example of a Hungarian election campaig...

One question has been driving us for the past year: how do people actually find out what's happening in their communities?
At MJRC, we launched last year Local Signal, a new research project that maps local information ecosystems beyond traditional news media. We are looking at the full range of actors and channels through which local information travels, from journalism and local government to libraries, sports clubs, neighbourhood groups, cultural organisations, messaging apps and everyday conversations.
During this summer, our team is conducting fieldwork in Oviedo, Chichester, The Hague, Hamburg, Travemünde, Liepāja and Pärnu, combining data analysis with on-the-ground observation and interviews.
This autumn, we will publish our first findings and locality profiles, offering a new way to understand how communities stay informed, where information flows well, and where gaps remain.
This is just the beginning. Local Signal is designed as a growing research initiative, and we hope to expand it to many more communities over time.

Read more about the project here:
https://journalismresearch.org/2026/07/local-signal-to-publish-its-first-findings-this-autumn/

If you're a local journalist, researcher, librarian, community organiser or simply someone interested in how information moves through your community, we'd be delighted to hear from you.

Local Signal to Publish Its First Findings This Autumn - Media and Journalism Research Center MJRC will publish the first batch of findings from Local Signal: Mapping How Communities Get Informed in autumn 2026. The project examines how information travels within local communities, looking beyond traditional news outlets to include public institutions, civic and cultural organizations, polit...

Most people won't meet quantum computing through a big breakthrough, but through a bank login, a phone update, a digital certificate renewing in the background.
Our Signal #7 of the Secure Internet Observatory looks at the latest development in the quanrum tech: security firms shipping tools to help organisations find their own encryption, governments turning post-quantum security into a supplier requirement, Europe naming who will coordinate its quantum networks.
All of it this is infrastructure. And infrastructure decides who is protected by default, who has to pay, and who waits for a vendor to move.
With practical questions for newsrooms and eight story angles for reporters.

Available for MJExchange members.
https://journalismresearch.circle.so/c/next-internet-observatory/secure-internet-observatory-signal-7-august-2026-304756b2-f0f5-4397-af87-2c854d55284c

State and Public Media in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2026 is now published. We mapped 68 state and public media outlets across 25 countries. 57 of them, 83.8%, are state-controlled or captured, a share that has risen in every cycle since 2022.

Two findings stand out:
State control tracks poorly with regime type. The same State-Controlled classification applies to the national broadcasters of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela and to those of Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Panama. Jamaica's PBCJ was reclassified this year. Where independence exists, universities usually explain it. Six of the region's 11 independent outlets are housed in autonomous public universities. Only one principal national broadcaster in the region holds independent status: CERTV in the Dominican Republic.

This is our third regional overview of the 2026 cycle, after Sub-Saharan Africa and MENA. Europe and Asia follow, ahead of the global study launch in September.
https://statemediamonitor.com/2026/07/state-and-public-media-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-in-2026/

Novedad de MJRC: ya están disponibles los resultados de España de nuestro Mapa de la Información de la IA.

Tras publicar la edición de Rumanía, incorporamos ahora España a nuestro mapa —país por país— de cómo los sistemas de IA muestran, recomiendan y desaconsejan fuentes de información.

Planteamos a diez grandes sistemas de IA (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, AI at Meta, DeepSeek AI, Le Chat de Mistral (Vibe) y Google AI Overviews) preguntas comparables sobre la actualidad informativa y los asuntos públicos de España, en inglés y en español.

Después, cartografiamos las fuentes que hay detrás de unas 400.000 respuestas archivadas.

Algunos hallazgos destacan:

→ Ningún medio domina en solitario (la buena noticia, señal de diversidad): El País encabeza la lista, pero solo con el 4,9 % de las citas. Más de tres cuartas partes de la visibilidad se reparten entre otras 1.924 fuentes.

→ El periodismo español es visible, pero a menudo no el primero (la noticia menos buena). Wikipedia, La Moncloa y las instituciones de la UE ocupan posiciones altas en la capa de fuentes.

→ El idioma cambia el país que te muestran los sistemas de IA. Si preguntas en inglés, obtienes más instituciones, agencias y artículos explicativos internacionales. Si preguntas en español, las redacciones españolas ascienden posiciones.

→ Los sistemas saben qué recomendar, pero no siempre usan esas fuentes. El País, RTVE, La Vanguardia y El Mundo aparecen de forma destacada como medios fiables, mientras que en la práctica los sistemas recurren con frecuencia a Wikipedia y a fuentes gubernamentales.

→ Ningún asistente etiquetó a ninguna fuente española como desinformación. Pero sí señaló varias fuentes y plataformas como merecedoras de cautela.

Quizá el caso más revelador sea el de RTVE: la radiotelevisión pública es a la vez de las más recomendadas y de las más advertidas, según cómo se formule la pregunta.

Los sistemas de IA se están convirtiendo en nuevas puertas de acceso al conocimiento público, pero no muestran a todo el mundo el mismo mapa informativo.

España es la segunda edición nacional de esta serie, y habrá más países próximamente.

AI Information Map Spain Released: What Sources AI Systems Pick When They Describe Spain - Media and Journalism Research Center The Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) has published the Spain results from its AI Information Map, a research project that tracks which sources artificial intelligence systems make visible, recommend, or warn against when people ask them about news and public affairs. The Spain edition fol...

New from MJRC: the Spain results from our AI Information Map are out.
After publishing the Romania edition, we are now adding Spain to our country-by-country map of how AI systems surface, recommend and warn against sources of information.
We asked ten major AI systems (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, AI at Meta, DeepSeek AI, Mistral’s Le Chat (Vibe) and Google AI Overviews) comparable questions about Spain’s news and public affairs, in English and Spanish.
Then we mapped the sources behind roughly 400,000 archived answers.

A few findings stood out:
→ No single outlet dominates (the good news, showing diversity): El País leads, but with just 4.9% of citations. More than three quarters of visibility is spread across 1,924 further sources.
→ Spanish journalism is visible, but often not first (the less good news). Wikipedia, La Moncloa and EU institutions sit high in the source layer.
→ Language changes the country AI systems show you. Ask in English and you get more institutions, agencies and international explainers. Ask in Spanish and Spanish newsrooms move up.
→ The systems know what to recommend, but do not always use those sources themselves. El País, RTVE, La Vanguardia and El Mundo appear prominently as trusted outlets, while the systems often rely in practice on Wikipedia and government sources.
→ No Spanish source was labelled as disinformation by any assistant. But several sources and platforms were flagged for caution.
The most revealing case may be RTVE: the public broadcaster is both highly recommended and highly warned about, depending on how the question is framed.
AI systems are becoming new gateways to public knowledge, but they do not show everyone the same information map.

Spain is the second country edition in this series, with more countries coming next.

AI Information Map Spain Released: What Sources AI Systems Pick When They Describe Spain - Media and Journalism Research Center The Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC) has published the Spain results from its AI Information Map, a research project that tracks which sources artificial intelligence systems make visible, recommend, or warn against when people ask them about news and public affairs. The Spain edition fol...

How independent is state media in Sub-Saharan Africa? Our latest State Media Monitor regional analysis paints a sobering picture.

We mapped 145 state-linked media outlets across 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings show that 98.6% are not independent, with government or ruling-party influence remaining the defining characteristic of the region's public information landscape. While the dataset expanded in 2026, every newly added outlet was state-controlled, underscoring how the media ecosystem continues to grow around state institutions rather than independent public-service models.

A few key findings:
🔹 122 outlets are classified as State-Controlled.
🔹 Only 2 outlets—both in Côte d'Ivoire—meet our criteria for independence.
🔹 Captured private media are becoming more prominent in some countries, suggesting that political influence is increasingly exercised through nominally private ownership rather than direct state control.

The report also explores important regional differences across Eastern, Western, Central and Southern Africa, showing that while state influence is pervasive, the mechanisms of control are evolving.

The full regional overview is available here: https://statemediamonitor.com/2026/06/state-and-public-media-in-sub-saharan-africa-in-2026/