Jean Kassir

Megaphone is an online independent media platform. We produce explainer multimedia content that covers current affairs and social and cultural commentaries, in formats adapted for the digital media. OUR APPROACH Our aim is to bring Lebanese politics closer to audiences that feel alienated by traditional media. We started producing a few videos a month, covering stories that were ignored by the mainstream news cycle or providing a fresh and critical angle to major news. We then grew to produce daily news coverage features and investigative stories that mattered, as a way to create alternative narratives. Two years after the 17 October uprising and into the economic collapse, we started producing more in-depth material that bears witness to the transformations of our society, while allowing for new political ideas to emerge. Born on Facebook first, we now have active channels on Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Whatsapp as well as this website which is home to all our text-based articles. The website is currently under development and we hope it will eventually contain all of the material we produce, to serve as one of the archives of our present. Megaphone is politically independent and our funding does not impose editorial restrictions, thus ensuring our editorial line remains uncompromised. OUR FUNDING Megaphone started with a team of volunteers working after-hours and pro bono. With time and to cover our growing needs, we began relying on grants to institutionalize our work. Today, we have diversified our financial structure to include editorial services and a donation program, to ensure Megaphone's sustainability and financial independence. Our current projects remain funded by grants from the following institutions: The European Endowment for Democracy International Media Support Canal France international Open Society Foundation The Asfari Foundation Samir Kassir Foundation The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - AFAC