OC Media could face closure after cuts to foreign aid spearheaded by US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have left the organisation with a $250,000 shortfall.
The cuts, spurred on by tech billionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), have caused roughly $220,000 of pre-approved funding for OC Media from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to be blocked, the organisation said on Thursday. They added that contracts for an additional $33,000 in USAID funding were terminated unilaterally earlier that day, having earlier been frozen.
It was not clear at the time of writing if the NED funding would be formally terminated as well.
Dominik K Cagara, co-founder and chief financial officer at OC Media, said he was informed two weeks ago that the US Treasury Department had frozen all payments to NED.
‘We have two months left in the bank’, he said.
Cagara said the money included tens of thousands of dollars that had already been spent from the organisation’s contingency fund and which had been agreed to be reimbursed later.
Robin Fabbro, OC Media’s editor in chief, said the cuts had already affected the organisation’s editorial work, with a hiring freeze and halt on all new freelance commissions in place.
‘For now we are focused on maintaining our news coverage’, he said.
‘The current state of the world has demonstrated more clearly than ever why a strong and independent media is so crucial’, he added.
‘Our entire team is determined to continue to fight for survival, and we have no intention of giving up’.
Cagara said the move highlighted the need to transition away from donor funding and focus on OC Media’s reader revenue.
‘Last year, our website had over 450,000 active users. We need just 4,000 members to stay afloat’, Cagara said.
‘Join us in proving that independent media in the Caucasus doesn’t have to rely on donor funding — or simply out of spite for the autocrats trying to reshape the world in their image, with us standing in their way’, he added.
Online media has long been a blessing and a curse — it has allowed startups and small organisations to proliferate, minus the need for the costs associated with print media, but also without the subscription fees and advertising that kept newspapers in the black in previous generations.
‘In this region, there are limited sources for media funding. Obviously, state funding is off limits, and the advertising market is small’, said OC Media co-founder and executive director Mariam Nikuradze. ‘Reader-generated revenue is still new, people are not used to paying for news or cannot afford to do so, but things are slowly changing and I think there is hope’.
‘Membership is not just about funding our work, but about building a relationship with our readers so that we can better serve their needs’.
While changing to a membership-funded model has been a goal for OC Media for years, the aid freeze from the US has made the switch a necessity.
Earlier in February, Trump issued an executive order that has effectively ended funding streams directed at international aid, as well as supporting civil rights, press freedom, and other NGOs around the world.
Initially, the cuts most visibly impacted the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which funds a variety of organisations in the Caucasus, including OC Media and other local media outlets.
It soon became clear that the impact of the executive order would spread far beyond USAID, and has also resulted in the freezing of the accounts of NED at the US Treasury Department, forcing the organisation to furlough staff and suspend grants.
According to NED’s 2023 annual report, the organisation approved ‘$283 million for 1,989 projects in 100 countries’. Without citing specific examples, Musk has called NED ‘evil’ and said it is a ‘scam’ that is ‘rife with corruption’.
While the duration of the cuts are currently unclear, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier in February that the cuts were intended to continue until it was determined that foreign aid ‘is being spent on something that furthers our national interest’. Rubio did not offer any specifics, but said that aid or other forms of international assistance must be aligned with Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.
The cuts from the US, which has long been the global leader in international aid, have occurred against the backdrop of a worsening media environment across the Caucasus.
The US funding freeze is believed to have affected numerous national and local media outlets throughout the region, with several expected to shut down in the coming weeks and months.
‘We could be about to witness an extinction-level event for the entire media landscape of the Caucasus’, OC Media’s Cagara said.
According to the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the level of press freedom in Azerbaijan and Russia ranked in the bottom tier globally of 180 countries surveyed in 2024, at 164 and 162, respectively. In Georgia, the ruling Georgian Dream party has intensified its attacks on independent media, resulting in its RSF ranking to continue to decline — in 2024, it was ranked 103, dropping from 77 in 2023.
Only in Armenia did RSF list the situation with media freedom as being ‘satisfactory’ in 2024. It came in 43rd place, and was the only country in the Caucasus to actually improve its ranking from the previous year.
In Azerbaijan, authorities have made a concerted effort to extinguish the remnants of independent media in the country, embarking on a years-long campaign to imprison and persecute journalists, often on charges many believed to be trumped-up. A number of journalists from the independent outlets Meydan TV and Abzas Media who have written about government corruption have been arrested on smuggling charges, which they have said are false and politically motivated.
Earlier in February, Turan, the oldest independent media outlet in the country, closed its office, citing financial difficulties.
Nonetheless, Turan and its journalists have been targeted by Azerbaijani authorities and many believed the closure to be connected to pressure from the government. The following week, BBC News Azerbaijan also said it had taken a ‘reluctant decision’ to close its office in Baku following an order by the government. On Monday, the Azerbaijani branch of Voice of America also suspended its operations.
Russia’s already repressive media environment has only worsened since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The situation is particularly difficult in Chechnya, one of the most authoritarian regions of Russia.
Shota Kincha
Even as media freedom continues to decline in Georgia, the ruling Georgian Dream party has said in recent weeks that it will introduce new legislation that will further restrict the ability of media outlets to receive foreign funding.
The only remaining bright spot in the region, Armenia, has nonetheless not been immune to the growing attacks on free media. Following a joint investigation by the OCCRP and Armenian media outlet CivilNet that alleged Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan of committing corrupt practices and obtaining undue benefits from his official position, Avinyan filed a lawsuit against CivilNet and said that the media in Armenia had become ‘one big garbage dump’.
Beyond these domestic developments, US officials have criticised RFE/RL and Voice of America, two US-funded media organisations that have played a critical role in the regional media landscape. Retweeting critical comments from Trump official Rick Grennell about RFE/RL and Voice of America, Musk said earlier in February, ‘shut them down’.
Yes, shut them down.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025
1. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Hello??
2. Nobody listens to them anymore.
3. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money. https://t.co/PnmN4erD91
‘I’m speaking out as OC Media’s last resort to stay afloat — to make our readers aware that if they don’t think supporting us with even $5 a month is worth it, another reality awaits them: a barren media space filled with AI-generated rubbish and authoritarian propaganda seeping through their browsers and billionaire-owned social media feeds’, Cagara said.
‘I believe that becoming the first fully reader-funded media outlet in the Caucasus will be proof that it is too early for others to lay down their arms. And in line with our mission, we will be here to share our experience and play a part in building the resilience of our region’s media as a whole’, he added.
‘When there is a crisis, people turn to independent media to get verified information and they start to understand the importance of quality journalism. Which is why we launched our membership model just recently’, said Nikuradze.
‘I believe we can create a community which will help us thrive and become more sustainable’, she concluded.
You can help us survive this hostile media environment with a monthly or a single donation for as little as $5. In a world drowning in disinformation, your support means we can continue bringing you the real, fact-checked stories that matter.
Become a member
Baylargizi was detained as part of the case against Toplum TV, while Orujov, the director of Kanal 13, was detained for building without a permit.
This is just the latest attempt to block independent media from covering Azerbaijan’s ongoing media crackdown.
The legislative majority has initiated a number of laws in parliament over the past few weeks.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also cancelled the accreditation of Voice of America’s correspondent.
