The importance of free press for protecting freedom, and bringing about accountability in government is obvious. The problem is how to ensure that Free Press is funded while protecting its independence. In this very well presented TED talk, Sasa Vuvinic shares his own story as well has how he went about getting George Soros to invest in free press, the skepticism he faced from George Soros himself about getting back any money from these investments, and how apart from money they had to do a lot more to ensure that these media companies survived, the political interference, and yet 98% of the payments were made by these media companies as per schedule making investment into Free Press a viable option. The next frontier is to create Free Press Bonds which can be traded, making an exchange for not only independent media but for other social causes. Making it easy for people who want to invest in social causes to find the most effective organisations.
More in this very interesting TED talk.