When Journalism Loses Funding, Authoritarianism Gains Ground

Independent journalism is often discussed in national terms, press freedom here, censorship there. But in the latest episode of Intelligence Spotlight, Gemma Terés i Arilla makes a different point: journalism collapses as a system, not as isolated cases.

“For me journalism was always linked to understanding how power actually works, especially when it’s uneven or hidden,” she says. “Journalism is a way to make sense of complexity rather than simplify it.”

That sense of responsibility runs through the conversation. Having worked across Eastern Europe and Latin America, Gemma describes how power shapes not only politics but also the conditions under which journalists operate. “You could see how the possibilities of doing independent journalism slowly disappeared,” she recalls of Belarus. Today, she notes, “there is no independent journalism in the country. Journalists are either in exile or in prison.”

The episode also exposes a structural vulnerability that rarely enters public debate: funding. “Nobody was aware to which extent US funding was supporting independent journalism worldwide,” she says. “And now there isn’t any counter power that can balance this gap.” The result, she argues, is not temporary disruption but long-term damage. “Everybody is looking in the same direction, contacting the same institutions. The market is small.”

This has consequences beyond newsrooms. When journalists lose protection, entire societies lose access to verified information. “Foreign journalists may report without consequences,” she explains, “but when local journalists report for their own audience, that’s when repression happens.”

The human cost is ever-present. “My work is about journalists in prison, journalists in exile,” she says. “Sometimes I feel like an UFO in daily life, because these are stories about human lives.”

Yet the conversation does not end in despair. Gemma points to cooperation and local journalism as fragile but necessary lifelines. “Perhaps if you connect the dots, connect people, you can fill a little bit of the gap.”

Her warning is clear: when journalism weakens in one place, the consequences travel. The failure is not local. It is global.