NEW YORK: Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos is giving $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the largest-ever gift to the media rights watchdog.

The gift from Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post newspaper, was announced at the organisation’s awards dinner on Tuesday.

“This generous gift will help us continue to grow, to offer our legal and educational support to many more news organisations, and to expand our services to independent journalists, non-profit newsrooms and documentary film-makers,” Reporters Committee chairman David Boardman said.

“We’ll also be better positioned to help local newsrooms, the places hit hardest by the disruption in the news industry and whose survival is every bit as crucial to American democracy as those entities headquartered in Washington and New York.”

First Look, a news organisation established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, announced separately on Tuesday it will increase its funding for its press freedom fund to $2 million and offer an additional $2 million in matching funds.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017