Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) Newsletter

"One of the things that distinguishes community media from other media forms...is that we belong to the community - we are and represent the many communities within our community....This core distinguishing difference between us and any other media, means that our community generally trusts us. Our community listens to us and follows our advice." - CMFE

With a mission to advocate for and raise awareness around the importance and role of community media, the Community Media Forum Euope (CMFE) issues an online newsletter 11 times per year as a point of regular contact with members and others interested in press freedom, diversity, and media pluralism. CMFE newsletters cover action and news within the organisation's thematic goal areas: (i) legal, enabling environment - advocacy; (ii) communication and visibility; and (iii) action for cooperation and change. The purpose of the resource is to serve as a systematic, strategic platform for debate on the role and opportunities of community media in Europe.

Six times annually, the newsletter features thematic issues, providing CMFE experts, board members, and interested others with an opportunity to go more in-depth with some of the ever-changing issues of importance for the community media sector. For example, the April 2020 CMFE newsletter highlights resources in support of community media in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes advice on how to secure quality reporting - with an eye to gender issues - and tools to filter out disinformation. This edition shares information about platforms where abuses by governments under the guise of the coronavirus can be reported. Information on funding sources for media whose work is impaired by the coronavirus realities collected by the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) are shared, along with change stories from Bangladesh, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland.

In each edition, a final "classifieds" section offers information on relevant events, calls, and publications from within and of importance to the community media sector.

The CMFE was founded in 2004 to strengthen the participation of the "Third Media Sector" in European discussion and decision-making processes, out of concern that "freedom of expression and free access to information are increasingly endangered by the consequences of concentration in the media field."