Five years after Reporters Without Borders (RSF) launched the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI), the international standard has reached a crucial milestone as it says over 2,000 media outlets in 119 countries have registered to begin the certification process. As the rampant spread of disinformation and the acceleration of unregulated artificial intelligence increase, the organisation says the JTI is quickly becoming an essential tool for strengthening trust between media outlets and their audiences.

Thibaut Bruttin, RSF director general said: "It is not up to public authorities or online platforms to define what content falls within the scope of journalism. In five years, an industry standard established by media professionals for media professionals has taken hold across the global media landscape, regardless of an outlet’s size, country, or format. The JTI has become a common denominator for journalism worldwide. To media outlets: assess your editorial processes using the standard’s guidelines and commit to getting certified. To advertisers and tech platforms: integrate the JTI in your products and services. It is well past time to restore a virtuous cycle favoring quality journalism based on facts, safeguards for a democracy’s public debate.”

The JTI says the most recent outlets to become certified illustrate the Initiative’s diversity, from public media outlets such as Radio Taiwan International (Rti), and Latvijas Televizija (Latvia), to private television and radio channels including TF1 in France and Radio NV in Ukraine, as well as specialised media like Afrikelles (women’s rights in Africa), Nature News (environment and climate in Nigeria), and Ecuador Chequea (fact-checking in Ecuador). They join JTI pioneers such as RTE News (Ireland), CBC/Radio-Canada (Canada) and GMX News (Germany), which have committed to following the JTI standard since 2022.

Launched by RSF in 2019 and developed in collaboration with media professionals, the organisation says the JTI certification consists of three stages. First, the outlet evaluates itself against 130 criteria via the JTI-app, an online platform that assesses transparency in the news production process and the conditions ensuring its reliability. Next, the outlet publishes a transparency report, making its responses and compliance level for each criterion available to the public. Finally, the outlet can achieve certification if it undergoes an audit conducted by a trusted third party.

To date, RSF says 2,000 media outlets across 119 countries have started the self-assessment stage of the JTI certification, with one-third based in Europe, one third in Africa. Six hundred media outlets have published their transparency report and 100 were JTI certified by an independent auditing firm.

The JTI continues to grow, added RSF, strengthened by new partnerships and certifying bodies, expanding the JTI on a global scale. The standard has also been integrated into several European regulatory frameworks, including the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).

Furthermore, the organisation says JTI has been integrated into the algorithms of digital platforms such as Microsoft’s search engine Bing, the digital newsstand Cafeyn, the European Broadcasting Union’s content aggregator YEP, and the fact-checking application Ask Vera.

JTI certification is also a criterion considered by donors such as the Thomson Foundation, the Samir Kassir Foundation, and the International Fund for Public Interest Media (IFPIM) when selecting recipient media outlets, continued RSF.

All transparency reports and media certifications are available on the Journalism Trust Initiative website.