As part of its work in Europe, IPI has been documenting the different models and tools used by vested political and business interests to capture independent media and how this phenomenon is increasingly undermining press freedom and watchdog journalism.

The key mechanisms of media capture that IPI’s monitoring and research has identified include: turning public broadcasters into government mouthpieces; capturing and instrumentalising media regulatory bodies with political appointees; abusing state resources to distort the media market in favour of pro-government media; and creating a circle of loyal oligarchs to run private media in the government’s interest.

In recent years, this model of media capture in liberal and illiberal democracies alike has spread through the European Union and threatens media pluralism and the right of citizens to access balanced and independent sources of news. IPI’s work seeks to better understand the challenges and develop solutions for the problem.