“The primer was “conceived and developed by Joshua Machleder and Shannon Maguire at USAID, together with” the University of Chicago organization formerly known as the National Opinion Research Center, the introduction says.”
Machleder has a background with the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the same Cold War Communist Party front group Jamie Raskin’s father helped run. He wrote a paper on Russian NGOs in Moscow as an Alfa Fellow with INDEM Foundation in 2006. Recently he’s worked at the National Endowment for Democracy (CIA front linked to USAID and Soros operations in Obama-era Ukraine) and been involved in teaching English to Ukranian refugees.
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https://ips-dc.org/ips-authors/josh-machleder/
Josh Machleder
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Contextual and Legislative Analysis of the Russian Law on NGOs
Josh Machleder, Alfa Fellow
2006 UNPUBLISHED
Contextual and Legislative Analysis of the Russian Law
on NGOs
Josh Machleder, Alfa-Fellow
INDEM Foundation
Moscow, Russia
March 16, 2006
Shannon Maguire boasts how USAID under the leadership of Samantha Power has promoted propaganda and censorship under the guise of promoting freedom of the press:
When authoritarian and other repressive actors seek to silence expression, they do so to divide citizens, undermine their faith and trust in institutions, and make them question whether democracy can deliver for them.
Whether traditional techniques — attacking journalists, jailing editors, or putting censorship statutes on the books — or new takes like poisoning the information space or shutting down the internet, the intent is to silence dissent, or even just create uncertainty or cynicism.
As worst practices are shared, we see corruption weaponized, truthful narratives purposely distorted, and technologies put to work against reporters in Sudan, Myanmar, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and so many other places. Accelerating this trend was the COVID-19 pandemic, when uncertainty and global economic disruption opened the path for increased democratic erosion and closing civic space, putting even more pressure on independent media.
Supporting independent media has been part of USAID’s democracy and governance assistance efforts since the 1980s. The U.S. government is now the largest public donor to independent media development globally. . .
New Initiatives to Advance Free and Independent Media
Amajor demonstration of this approach comes through USAID’s Summit for Democracy commitments, a series of initiatives to address these threats and advance free and independent media.
The first one is the Media Viability Accelerator (MVA), which was announced at the first Summit for Democracy in December 2021. The goal of the MVA is to preserve fact-based news and information media by providing access to the data they need to build strategies to survive, thrive, adapt, and grow as businesses. Through a public-private partnership with USAID, Microsoft, and Internews, MVA is a unique data platform using artificial intelligence and other digital tools to enable media outlets to better understand markets, audiences, and strategies that will maximize their odds of profitability.
Second, USAID’s $20 million contribution to the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) is helping to boost global support through grants to develop and sustain a wide range of independent news organizations. To date, IFPIM has committed nearly $9 million through 32 grants across 16 countries to media outlets in urgent need of financial assistance and to strengthen their long-term sustainability. USAID’s initial seed funding has leveraged an additional $30 million from 15 governments, philanthropies, and corporate entities.
This solicitation says: Reporters Shield: FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE ATTACKS ON FREE PRESS; NOW OPEN FOR MEMBERSHIP; APPLY AT reporters-shield.org; #WorldPressFreedomDay.
The third initiative is Reporters Shield, an innovative program that helps protect investigative media outlets and civil society organizations from strategic litigation against public participation lawsuits, or other legal threats meant to silence their reporting. Prior to the launch of Reporters Shield, such help was inconsistent, ad hoc, reactive, and, often, expensive.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power launched the next phase of USAID’s Reporters Shield, at the United Nations Headquarters last World Press Freedom Day on May 3. Reporters Shield is now providing legal support services and capacity development for 12 media outlets and civil society organizations doing investigative reporting, with more than 100 applications still under review during the launch phase alone. Additional phases will be opening in spring and summer.
AEnsuring Trustworthy Information
Although these three innovations directly benefit journalists and media organizations, they are ultimately meant to ensure that all of us have sources of trustworthy information.
They also complement other USAID programs that equip journalists and their allies to protect themselves from attacks online and offline, strengthen investigative journalism networks, advance freedom of expression, and amplify citizen voices and government response. . .
. . .
About the Author
Shannon Maguire is the Senior Media Advisor in USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia’s Technical Support Office in the Democracy and Governance Division.
Nice catch... as soon as I saw University of Chicago I could detect sulphur.