Growing PSM Organically: International Initiatives to Support National Conversations in New Contexts

With an international debate under way about how to resolve the financial and political crisis affecting independent media everywhere, can international efforts enhance the prospects for promoting the principles of public service media (PSM) in national contexts where they have never been applied? Informed by discussions that contributed to a CAMRI Policy Brief published in March 2020, recommending incremental, non-media-centric approaches to laying the groundwork for PSM in challenging environments, this article considers how internal and external interests mesh in underpinning mechanisms to foster PSM values. It shows how regional and international mechanisms, including for example the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16, along with proposals for an International Fund for Public Interest Media and Social Media Councils, rely for their credibility and effectiveness on national institutions and national representatives working with them towards the principles that underlie PSM