PERSPECTIVES DIGITAL RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION SERIES 8 A NEW DEAL FOR JOURNALISM IN AFRICA ­PART 2 How market regulation will bring platforms to pay fair value for public interest journalism The content distribution and referral services that multinational digital platforms have built their businesses on have caused an escalating existential threat to news media businesses worldwide. The threat is not only to the commercial viability of news and information businesses but also to journalism’s social function. Although the problem is global in both nature and scale, Australia’s Online News Act has demonstrated that solutions are rooted in local action – principally through market regulation that protects the social function of journalism by safeguarding the contestability of news media businesses in online markets. However, market regulation by itself is unlikely to solve the decline of news media businesses and journalism. Sekoetlane Phamodi December, 2022 African governments have an opportunity to develop Australia’s breakthrough market regulation intervention to offer a more structural solution to the threat that platforms pose to the sustainable supply of news and information services. This can be done by creating public media funds whose institutional architecture is closely aligned with the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information.