Media literacy promotion fosters the quality of public discourse and, thereby, democracy. For instance, media literate citizens are more resilient to politically biased news reporting and disinformation – both of which are challenges facing the Moldovan media sphere. In Moldova, past literature has identified civil society organisations (CSOs) as key actors in advancing media literacy, with international funding often supporting the organisations’ actions. Thus, this paper studies how domestic civil society, international civil society actors and international funders, acting together, influence how media literacy is promoted in Moldova. The findings are based on 14 semi-structured interviews and written primary sources such as organisations’ annual reports and media literacy learning materials. The paper finds that international civil society actors have significantly shaped the theoretical basis for media literacy activities in Moldova. Secondly, it finds that vis-à-vis funders, CSOs have been able to design their projects and actions rather independently according to their own programmatic priorities and research.
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