Laif Foundation For Independent Photojournalism

Artificial intelligence is blurring the lines between truth and lies, making the spread of disinformation a piece of cake. Images are of crucial importance in this context. The mass media are facing a serious loss of public trust, and commercial journalism is barely able to fulfill its informative and monitoring tasks. The financial pressure in the private media business creates conditions for journalists under which high-quality work is becoming more and more difficult. Purely profit-oriented social media companies increasingly dominate news flows – largely without comprehensible ethical or editorial standards. There is a growing danger that journalism, including photojournalism, will become purely mainstream-driven. Only what can (still) be sold is being published. This creates gaps in the formation of public opinion, and our democracy is gradually losing its independent watchdog. Now more than ever, a reliable news media is essential – as an authority for credibility and guidance that verifies information, classifies topics and stories constructively and points out connecting factors. That’s why we are establishing a corporation for non-profit journalism, the laif foundation for independent photojournalism. We focus on three key impact areas: Promoting media literacy The ability to gather information and evaluate news is becoming increasingly important in democracy. Through photography as a medium, we engage people by providing inspiring educational activities, thus awakening an interest in critical media reflection. Safeguarding and fostering photojournalism As a complement to traditional media, we establish exciting and innovative publishing formats for photojournalistic projects. Providing a quality seal for the provenance and credibility of images In collaboration with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), we are promoting a standard for the traceable authenticity chain of image media based on a voluntary commitment by creators.