Governments Around The World Grapple With Nonprofit Journalism

In Free Press’ 2011 report on international models for public media, we noted how many of the changes we are witnessing in the American media landscape are also happening internationally. Public media systems around the world are debating how best to transition from broadcast to broadband, newspapers are cutting costs and struggling to adapt to the digital age and governments are grappling with ways to bridge the digital divide. All of these debates impact the future of journalism at home and abroad.

Similarly, the debate over whether journalism counts as a charitable activity, and whether news organizations should be eligible for nonprofit status, does not end at our borders. Here in the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service is blocking many journalism organizations from establishing themselves as nonprofits while it studies whether journalism constitutes an educational or charitable activity within the U.S. tax code. Some journalists have been caught in a bureaucratic limbo for as long as two years as they've waited for the IRS to make a decision.

More