Nick Benequista

Reimagining democracy support in times of crisis | Accountability Lab The recent “When Aid Fades” report by the Global Democracy Coalition serves as a stark reminder that funding cuts to civil society aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They represent a systematic wea...

+1 to this -> "We need to prioritize a non-duplicative, “elbows down” system that values collaboration among doers, thinkers, and those able to manage complex financial systems."
From @jeanscrim.bsky.social

Very excited to be hiring a program officer for applied research! They will join the new Impact Lab team at the National Endowment for Democracy. Please share with your networks.

workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

The Great Dismantling It’s time to reckon with the end of the old international order—and shape a vision for a new one.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/24/l...

Absolutely worth the time to watch this

Very grateful to @akademie.dw.com for publishing this report!

New study on internet shutdowns in South and Southeast Asia Internet shutdowns are an increasingly common tool of government repression. Researchers shed light on repercussions on journalists and media outlets in the region and discuss resistance strategies.

News outlets are finding creative ways to cope with internet shutdowns in south and Southeast Asia.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Writer Who Condemned Colonists and Elites, Dies at 87

One of the greats. Shame he wasn't recognized with the Nobel Prize.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Writer Who Condemned Colonists and Elites, Dies at 87 www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/b...

Good stuff indeed! If you're curious about the conclusion, the workshop identified four urgent tasks:

1. Establishing a consortium like Coders without Borders or a similar collaborative to connect AI developers with democracy movements.

How AI Can Support Democracy Movements: Summary Report of a Research and Practice Workshop – Ash Center

Hey @chenoweth.bsky.social, this is good stuff. Thanks. ash.harvard.edu/resources/ho...

Our friends at the @foruminfod.bsky.social are looking for submissions exploring the potential of digital taxes as mechanisms for funding journalism. See link below for deets.

Brazil finally gets a fund for local journalism FAJ will help nourish some news deserts outside the major urban centers and beyond the usual organizations.

Tip @mediagazer.com:

A new fund for journalism launches in Brazil. Why is this important? @sergio.nucleo.jor.br explains that it’s specifically targeted at funding outside the major cities, & beyond the usual recipients. Instead it’s designed to address news deserts:

nucleo.jor.br/english/2025...

Robert McChesney, the Great Champion of Journalism and Democracy, Has Died The academic and activist inspired generations of people to challenge corporate power and support a media reform movement that lives on.

As a dear friend, comrade, mentor, and hero, Bob McChesney has meant the world to me. I am heartbroken by this irreplaceable loss, but Bob's vision for a truly democratic media system lives on. To honor him, we must continue the struggle.

Here's a wonderful tribute by @nicholsuprising.bsky.social

This is a data viz masterclass. Enjoy.

Banned Russian Channel RT Secretly Pays Video Bloggers Who Promote Kremlin Narratives The bloggers rack up millions of views, promote Russia as a haven for conservatives, glorify the war in Ukraine — and never disclose any ties to the Russian government. The money tells a different sto...

NEW: A cool investigation we did with iStories, Paper Trail Media and Der Standard about how RT is paying English and German influencers to produce pro-Russia content. It looks at how the Kremlin engineers conservative Westerners to move to Russia for its "traditional values."

Please share!

Opinion | We Are Still in the Chaos Part of the Pandemic Cycle We’re still in the chaos phase.

Comforting?

We Compared Eight AI Search Engines. They’re All Bad at Citing News. AI search tools are rapidly gaining in popularity, with nearly one in four Americans now saying they have used AI in place of traditional search engines. These tools derive their value from crawling t...

www.cjr.org/tow_center/w...

Making a Better Case for Foreign Aid | by Nilima Gulrajani - Project Syndicate Nilima Gulrajani urges policymakers to formulate an alternative vision of how such a system should work in a post-USAID world.

Excellent essay by Nilima Gulrajani at @odi.global, but I don't believe that a global "independent commission" can chart a way towards a new consensus on international cooperation.

BASAS Annual Lecture 2025 - British Association for South Asian Studies Naomi Hossain, SOAS Bangladesh’s Monsoon Uprising The student-led popular uprising that unseated Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years

BASAS Annual Lecture 2025 with @naomihossain.bsky.social looks so good #Bangladesh: www.basas.org.uk/news-events/...

📝The sudden loss of US funding will jeopardize media development and freedom. @benequista.bsky.social explains how the sector can weather the storm. innovating.news/guest-essay/... @cnti.bsky.social

I also want to thank @cnti.bsky.social for the opportunity to publish this essay!

The media freedom movement has been set back by years, but everyone in the community is steadfastly committed to rebuilding

This “Triffin World” theory—that the US is essentially subsidizing global growth through dollar reserves—actually seems persuasive. But the solutions prescribed here don’t seem to consider the national and global political realities. Buckle up, folks.

Reports - OID Reports Global synthesis Global assessment report Global Assessment Reports provide a periodical global comprehensive synthesis of state-of-the-art research at the nexus of information and democracy. ...

Last week, we published the first research synthesis of our Observatory on Information and Democracy.

Covering more than 1600 sources, it provides a unique state of the knowledge on information ecosystems.

You can find it here.

🧵

observatory.informationdemocracy.org/reports/

Registration for Strengthening Media to Safeguard Democracy: The Media Viability Manifesto for Collective Action On behalf of the Media Viability Manifesto (MVM) initiative, we are pleased to invite you to our English-language evening reception, Strengthening Media to Safeguard Democracy: The Media Viability Man...

Register for "Strengthening Media to Safeguard Democracy" to learn more about the Media Viability Manifesto. The event will take place on Jan. 28 in Brussels. @imsforfreemedia.bsky.social @unesconow.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

🧵 This week's top #MediaDev & #DigitalMedia news: @cima-media.bsky.social looks back on trends in media development and digital media governance:

I know a lot is happening in the world right now, but please spare some of your attention for the growing crackdown on democratic rights in #Ethiopia. --> movedemocracy.salsalabs.org/democracy--a...

I’m not convinced of the impact of fact-checking in promoting accuracy to FB users, but it did provide a revenue stream for smaller newsrooms.

Big Question: How are Cybercrime Laws Weaponized to Legalize Repression? - NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY Four leading experts consider the following questions: What concerns do the abuse of cybercrime laws present for the work and safety of democratic actors? What strategies can democratic actors use to ...

With the passage of the UN Cybercrime Convention looking imminent and inevitable, here are some examples of how cybercrime laws, absent adequate safeguards, are already being weaponized by authoritarians.

Defending Democratic Norms in Global Tech Governance - NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY In September 2024, the Forum and CIMA held a private, hybrid workshop to better understand the shifting global tech governance landscape and identify response strategies.

CIMA and the International Forum for Democratic Studies co-hosted an outstanding discussion in DC in September with civil society practitioners, technologists, journalists, and researchers. Here's what that discussion concluded on the path ahead for defending democratic norms in tech governance.