Critical reporting is often kept to a minimum. Several journalistic networks and media NGOs were established as a reaction to this and in order to support critical journalism. These organisations are often active in the field of investigative journalism.

Such journalist organisations can differ in their organisational structure and their field of activity. Some organisations work only in one country, others expand their working area beyond a single country. Others do not only operate in South East Europe, but also in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Some networks offer a platform to publish reports beyond mainstream media; others support a professional exchange among journalists. In individual cases, media NGOs support journalists with legal assistance and trainings. Moreover, some organisations offer databases for research purposes. Hence, these journalistic NGOs can be seen as very diverse.

Funding is a challenge for these organisations. One option is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding describes the search for investors and donations via the internet. Usually a certain amount of money has to be collected until a specific date. Particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world as well as in Germany, this way of funding is becoming more and more popular. In South East Europe, there have been only a few successful crowdfunding projects so far. Especially for media projects, crowdfunding is rather not a promising funding option. Instead, most organisations rely on international donors from the U.S. or Europe. Among others, the European Union supports independent media projects in South East Europe.

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