On the end of institutions and the health benefits of broccoli

The US's funding freeze is both a symptom and catalyst of a broader trend. Many of the world's largest institutions no longer see investing in the media and information ecosystem as a priority.

Tuesday evening, I was attending an event in Brussels, discussing the finer points of international media funding when I suddenly felt very close to the violinist playing on the deck of the Titanic as the ship went down. What funding am I even talking about?

I'm sure many of you are painfully aware of what's happening around the independent media space, but for the happy few who have managed to miss it so far: either stop reading right now, or brace yourself for some very bad news.

Last week, the US government suspended all foreign assistance, and by Tuesday, every US-funded media support and development project across the globe ground to a halt. Marcin Gadziński, MDIF's European Program director, summed up the impact in CEE perfectly: it's primarily hitting medium-sized, independent, digital newsrooms working in difficult environments to improv…