Leading news agencies launch global information service Democracy News Alliance

The service is specifically tailored to the information needs of international organizations, NGOs, think-tanks, foundations, government agencies, and corporations. It enables decision-makers to recognise and analyse the progress of emerging democracies, as well as developments towards anti-democratic practices. 

The Democracy News Alliance (DNA) is a joint project of Agence France-Presse (AFP, France), Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA, Italy), The Canadian Press (CP, Canada), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa, Germany), and PA Media (UK + Ireland). The Associated Press (AP, USA) is providing editorial support for the project.   

The initial offering is an English-language news service with reports and analyses, available to DNA clients on the website democracy-news.org and via a newsletter. 

The service curates news agency content based on a series of indicators developed with the help of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) research project. There are 106 individual indicators of a functioning democracy which can be systematically and continuously monitored using the DNA service.

Peter Kropsch, CEO of the lead agency dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur, said: “The Democracy News Alliance is filling a major gap with its offering. This gap exists between the daily news media and the lengthy publication cycle of research into politics, society, and democracy. The DNA will continue to report on developments in important areas such as freedom of speech and the press, fairness of elections, gender equality, and political corruption, even when a country is not currently in the spotlight of breaking news coverage.” 
 
“Many clients need a reliable, continuous stream of information about individual countries or entire world regions,” Kropsch adds. “The DNA will help ensure this continuity and enable clients to make well-informed decisions, for example, in political contacts or investments.”   

The DNA news service is accompanied by the education and training program DNA Academy. Experienced trainers from the participating agencies will jointly share their knowledge on disinformation, verification and the use of factchecks, and journalistic work under difficult conditions.    

The DNA project is coordinated by Thorsten Matthies, Non-Executive Vice President at dpa, and Christian Röwekamp, who draws on his experience leading multinational teams as Editorial Director of the European Newsroom in Brussels and additionally assumes the position as Editorial Director of DNA.

DNA’s technical implementation partner (Content Management System and website) is Sourcefabric, based in Prague. In addition to experts from the participating agencies, academics - including those from V-Dem - are involved in the development and implementation of the DNA concept. At times, Tony Gillies, former Editor-in-Chief of Australia’s AAP news agency, was also involved as an external consultant.