The Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI)

The JTI was born from the fact that journalism is undergoing direct competition from manipulative content that proliferates in the digital space: propaganda, advertising, and disinformation. This has resulted over the years in declining audiences, mistrust of the media, and falling revenues from advertising, subscriptions, and purchases. The overall goal of the JTI is, therefore, to provide a transparent mechanism for curbing misinformation and providing tangible rewards for ethical and professional journalism. It seeks to offer benefits all along the information chain for multiple actors:

• As the initiative involves media outlets assessing their compliance and the ability to make their results public, the JTI provides an incentive for the media to improve the way they operate.
• Citizens can use the JTI indicators to make informed choices about the information they consult.
• Advertisers can rely on the JTI to select the media with which to associate their image, align their advertising spending, and thus protect the safety of their brands.
• Social media, algorithms, and search engines can use the JTI data to index and promote compliant sources.
• Regulators and state actors can use the standard as an independent regulatory mechanism for allocating grants and benefits to media outlets.
• Media development donors can evaluate projects and beneficiaries according to the JTI criteria.

Implementation of the project started in 2018, with the creation of a set of indicators for measuring the transparency of media ownership, editorial independence, implementation of journalistic methods, and respect for journalistic ethics. This resulted in an official industry standard, the CWA17493:2019, which was published by the European Committee for Standardization and thus, offers the possibility of independent, third-party audit and certification to add an extra level of accountability.



The agreed-upon standards and criteria for trustworthy media relate to the transparency of the media and the professionalism of the editorial processes, and include:

• the implementation of editorial guidelines;
• the existence of correction mechanisms;
• the management of automatically generated content;
• internal/external accountability;
• transparency on the identity of the owners and management, and;
• the sources of revenue.

What makes the JTI different from other trust indicator projects is that it focuses solely on the process - the manufacturing level of journalism - and not on individual content, dealt with on a case-by-case basis.



From 2021 onward, the JTI offered this online tool and additional support for media outlets to follow the three steps of the JTI process: the completion of the standardised self-assessment (step 1), which then leads to the publication of a transparency report (step 2) that may be voluntarily disclosed to the public and published by the media outlet. The third optional certification stage involves an external and independent audit by an accredited body, which certifies the conformity of the transparency report (checking that what the media outlet has stated in their self-assessment is actually true). Following the successful completion of all three stages, the media outlet will be certified and awarded a Journalism Trust Initiative Mark.



On an ongoing basis, RSF and its partners are working to encourage online platforms, advertisers, and others to provide concrete advantages to media outlets that meet the JTI standards - advantages that include preferential treatment by search engine and distribution algorithms leading to better visibility, reach, and advertising sales. In 2022, the JTI was incorporated into the European Union's new Code of Practice on Disinformation, which involved negotiations between major online platforms such as Meta, Google, and TikTok, civil society organisations such as RSF, and the European Commission. The Code consists of several categories of measures to be adopted by the platforms. One of these categories, concerning the services they provide to their users, calls on the platforms to implement trustworthiness indicators, such as the JTI, to empower their users.



Click here for more information on the JTI website.

Media Development, Democracy

Click on the links below to view examples of real "live" JTI transparency reports and certificates:

• SWI, swissinfo
• Winnipeg Free Press
• France Télévisions
• Studio Kalangou
• Exit News

In April 2022, a panel on JTI at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, offered a behind-the-scenes look at implementing the JTI in the daily routine of news organisations. The case studies and learnings from JTI shared by the presenters explore questions including: Why did media outlets sign-up for the process in the first place? What obstacles occurred? What are the benefits, and is it worth the effort? Click here to watch the video from the panel, "Turning Accountability into an Asset: Implementing RSF's Journalism Trust Initiative".



In 2021, the JTI was featured on a high-level panel at the Paris Peace Forum. Participants, including the European Commission's Vice-President Vera Jourova, emphasised the importance of the initiative to reward reliable journalism and to support a healthier information ecosystem. Click here to listen to the panel discussion.