RESISTING RESILIENCE

WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE WORLD AS IT IS

The climate crisis lies at the heart of today's polycrisis: a convergence of ecological, social and political crises rooted in the economic systems, political decisions and unequal power relations that shape our societies. It is inseparable from questions of poverty, labour, migration, housing, democracy and the unequal distribution of resources.

Yet, these connections are too often obscured. Structural problems are reduced to individual choices, while the systems and interests responsible for ecological destruction and social injustice escape scrutiny. Meanwhile, a media landscape shaped by commercial platforms, disinformation and polarisation increasingly prioritises speed, visibility and outrage over context, accuracy and meaningful public debate.

We refuse to accept a media system that treats people as passive audiences and leaves structures of power unquestioned.

We also reject the idea that resilience means learning to endure an unjust world. When people and communities are expected to adapt to systemic failures, responsibility shifts away from those who hold power and towards those who bear the consequences.

Collective capacity to question, verify and act together matters; what we reject is resilience as a demand to absorb injustice quietly.

This manifesto addresses two interconnected responsibilities. We call on governments and public institutions to create the political, legal and financial conditions in which independent media can thrive. At the same time, we commit ourselves, as media organisations and journalists, to editorial practices rooted in independence, participation, accountability and climate justice.

We do not want to become better at surviving an unjust world. We want to change it.

WE BELIEVE ANOTHER MEDIA LANDSCAPE IS POSSIBLE

Democracy requires more than access to information. It requires spaces where people can question dominant narratives, exchange knowledge, share their experiences and participate in shaping their common future.

We see media as an essential infrastructure of democratic society. Community media has a vital role in building this infrastructure: connecting local realities with global challenges, making underrepresented voices heard and enabling people to participate in the production of knowledge.

For us, community media is not only about what is broadcast or published. It is about the relationships it builds, the public spaces it creates and the collective capacity it helps develop.

We believe climate justice must be central to this work. The climate crisis cannot be separated from economic inequality, labour rights, migration, democracy and political responsibility. Journalism must make visible who benefits from decisions, who bears their costs and whose voices are excluded.

Climate disinformation is not a matter of individual falsehoods alone. It is produced and paid for: by industries that profit from delay, by greenwashing campaigns, and by platform business models that reward outrage and confusion. Its most effective forms today do not deny the crisis outright; they question every solution, sow doubt about who can be trusted, and turn people against one another. Responding to it means asking who produces it, who profits from it and who is targeted by it, not only correcting what is false.

At the same time, we reject approaches that treat people as audiences to be corrected. Trust is built through relationships, presence and participation. This is where community media's strength lies. We also refuse to let the fight against disinformation become a pretext for censorship: in many countries, including some of our own, “disinformation” laws are used to silence journalists, researchers and dissenting voices.

Through local reporting, conversations with affected communities and exchanges between journalists, scientists and civil society, community media can help people understand how climate change affects their lives and how local realities connect to wider political and economic decisions. By creating spaces where different forms of knowledge meet and claims can be questioned collectively, they can help counter misleading narratives and make the interests behind them visible.

WE COMMIT TO WORKING DIFFERENTLY, AND TOGETHER

As three community radio stations working in different social and political contexts, we bring our experiences together to strengthen independent journalism and solidarity across borders.

We commit to connecting local struggles with global developments; challenging dominant narratives and the interests behind disinformation; making participation meaningful; defending editorial independence; sharing knowledge and resources; and continually questioning our own practices.

Our collaboration, including our joint work around COP31, is not a temporary response to an international summit. It is part of a longer-term commitment to strengthening independent and community-based media, rooted in our local contexts and strengthened through years of editorial practice.

WE DEMAND THE CONDITIONS TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE

Independent media cannot sustain its public role through voluntary commitment and precarious labour alone. A democratic media landscape requires public responsibility and structural support.

We call on policymakers, public institutions and digital platforms to ensure:

• Sustainable, long-term funding for independent, community-based and non-profit media.
• Fair working conditions and adequate remuneration for journalists and media workers.
• Effective protection of editorial independence and press freedom.
• Accountability for those who fund and profit from climate disinformation, and safety for the journalists, scientists and activists it targets, without restricting press freedom or freedom of expression.
• Transparency and accountability from digital platforms, including meaningful access to data for independent research, within and beyond the EU.
• Public support for cross-border cooperation between community media, journalists, researchers and civil society.

We invite everyone committed to climate justice and democratic public life to join us in building spaces where people can question, participate and act collectively.

Resisting resilience means refusing to mistake survival for justice, adaptation for transformation or endurance for political action. It means building the collective power to change the conditions we live in.

Another media landscape is possible. Another future is possible. Let us build both together.

Conceptual reference: Mark Neocleous, “Resisting Resilience,” Radical Philosophy 178 (March/April 2013).