Economic prosperity
This section shows how independent media drive growth, innovation, and accountability. It frames journalism as essential economic infrastructure for Europe’s prosperity and stability.
📈 Linking Media Support to Economic Prosperity
Just as access to information is vital for achieving social and developmental goals, it is equally foundational to economic growth and stability. Reliable, independent journalism underpins trust in markets, strengthens governance, and enables innovation. When media systems fail, corruption flourishes, investment declines, and misinformation distorts competition. Supporting public-interest media is therefore not only a democratic priority — it is an economic strategy for resilience and long-term prosperity.
Why public interest media are an economic investment
Independent journalism is not only a democratic good — it is an economic necessity. Free and pluralistic media create the informational conditions that markets, investors, and societies depend on to function. They enhance governance, expose corruption, increase transparency, and build the trust that sustains economic growth. As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz observes, “Free and independent media can expose corruption in government and the corporate sector, provide a voice for citizens to be heard, help build public consensus to bring about change, and enable markets to work better by providing reliable economic information.”
The economic case: media as infrastructure for prosperity
The High-Level Panel on Public Interest Media compares independent journalism to “the central banks of the informational economy” — institutions that provide the confidence necessary for economies to function. In an age defined by data and digitalisation, every sector — from education and health to energy, trade, and defence — depends on a reliable supply of verified knowledge.
Public interest media contribute to prosperity in at least four interlinked ways:
Supporting growth and stability
Research across almost 100 countries shows a clear correlation between press freedom and GDP growth: economies with freer media experience higher standards of living and more stable investment climates.
Investigative journalism strengthens market integrity. The Panama Papers led to more than USD 1.86 billion in recovered taxes worldwide — including €450 million in France alone — demonstrating the measurable fiscal return of public-interest reporting.
Improving governance and investment conditions
Countries with strong, independent media attract more sustainable investment. Media oversight reduces corruption, strengthens accountability, and limits policy uncertainty — all of which improve investor confidence and reduce risk premiums.
Studies by the World Bank and OECD show that freedom of information and robust media systems are directly linked to effective control of corruption and the efficiency of public spending.
Enabling innovation and competitiveness
Public-interest media fuel innovation by ensuring informed debate, identifying societal needs, and exposing inefficiencies. Economists emphasise that innovation ecosystems depend on trusted information flows — the transparent exchange of ideas across sectors.
When journalism collapses, innovation slows: misinformation raises uncertainty, distorts incentives, and weakens the feedback loops essential to technological progress.
Protecting Europe’s information economy
The digital advertising market has decoupled profit from truth, sending billions in revenue to low-quality or fraudulent content while starving independent outlets. This constitutes a market failure that undermines competitiveness.
Rebalancing digital markets through fair revenue-sharing, algorithmic transparency, and public-interest investment is therefore an economic reform — not only a democratic one.
🏛️ Why this matters for EU economic and industrial policy
Public interest media form part of Europe’s democratic, digital, and economic infrastructure. They underpin the conditions for competitive markets and long-term prosperity by:
Attracting sustainable investment: Transparent and trustworthy information reduces risk and strengthens investor confidence.
Ensuring fair competition: Media pluralism curbs monopolies, deters corruption, and encourages equitable market participation.
Improving fiscal governance: Investigative and data-driven journalism expose tax abuse, illicit finance, and fraud, directly improving public revenues.
Enhancing productivity and innovation: Reliable information empowers entrepreneurs, consumers, and policymakers to make better, evidence-based decisions.
Recognising journalism as a public good allows governments and investors to apply the same long-term policy instruments used for other essential infrastructure — ensuring that Europe’s economy is built on transparency, trust, and accountability.
🔗 Policy implications
Treat journalism as economic infrastructure: Integrate support for media viability into competitiveness, innovation, and investment frameworks.
Blend financing tools: Combine grants, concessional loans, and equity mechanisms to attract private and impact investment while safeguarding editorial independence.
Correct digital market failures: Enforce transparency in advertising and algorithmic systems, and ensure fair value distribution between platforms and publishers.
Support local and cross-border innovation: Invest in independent media SMEs and new business models as part of Europe’s digital transition.
Strengthen fiscal accountability: Fund investigative and cross-border reporting that exposes illicit financial flows and improves governance efficiency.
💡 Key takeaway
Media freedom is not only a matter of values — it is a matter of value. A healthy, independent information ecosystem makes economies more transparent, innovative, and resilient. Investing in trustworthy media is therefore an economic imperative — essential to Europe’s competitiveness, fiscal integrity, and long-term prosperity.
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