The Battleground Turns Five
Letter From the Publisher
By Natalie Sarkic-Todd
We founded The Battleground in Brussels on Armistice Day 2018, as Europe marked 100 years since the end of the First World War.
A Brit, a Belgian, an Israeli, an American, French and Iranian media and politics professionals - united in the urge to counter populism, racism and inequality that once again were beginning to destabilise the European continent.
Coming from different countries, continents and cultures, we could see the common threads of a world in crisis: financial, political, social and environmental, and how power-hungry politicians and captured media were using them to subvert truth, social justice and democracy.
We had to act. To take a stand for independent, ethical journalism that challenges false narratives and holds politicians to account for their words and deeds.
Why The Battleground? Aside from the obvious political connotation, it was named to resist the attack on our common European values: diversity, equality, human rights, and the rule of law.
When we launched at the Brussels Press Club on 29 March 2019 - Brexit day - I warned about the dangers of libertarian ideology, and even fascism, creeping back into politics.
Our editor explained how, as a Jew, he cherishes multiculturalism and experiences discrimination, which drives The Battleground’s commitment to giving voice and representation to minorities.
From the start, we focused on the weaponisation of racism, which makes it more difficult for minorities to be accepted and fuels the far-right. We ran feature articles and interviews with Jews and Palestinians in Germany suffering from discrimination.
We made a conscious decision to publish big-picture journalism to show multiethnic Europe through street photography from European cities. In our upcoming campaign, you will find a selection of Battleground photos to download and share. Let’s burst the Brussels bubble together, one image at a time.
We created Battleground Books out of our topical series on the reasons behind the UK's departure from the European Union (spoiler: they relate to domestic policies we still see playing out today) and on music in Europe that reflects the cultural and social landscape.
We repeatedly warned of anti-immigrant politics in Italy driving the anti-migrant Lega party of Matteo Salvini and the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy led by Giorgia Meloni. We also launched a Western Balkan series to alert EU and US policymakers to the threats to stability resurfacing in the region.
We innovated with Battleground Sounds, producing political field recordings, albums and podcasts for our audiences to hear the sounds of actually existing Europe, as well as Black Lives Matter protests in New York and Palestinian demonstrations in Berlin.
As Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and Israeli forces returned to Gaza in 2023, we mobilised our geopolitical expertise and network of journalists, providing a far more nuanced and global context for the crises than other Brussels media.
In doing so, we found that more journalists wanted to write for us and that more people chose to read us. Our readership stands at 200,000 and is divided between Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
We have striven to uphold truth, integrity, and independence in all our work, and we’d like to think that our audience reflects this.
It’s time to look to the next five years.
We see that now, more than ever, The Battleground is needed to deconstruct propaganda, counter vested interests, and defuse culture wars that only bring division and conflict.
Join the fightback and help us continue creating better journalism for a better world.
Look out for our fifth anniversary campaign - coming soon with new books, albums, photos and podcasts - running throughout 2024.
Please support The Battleground. Subscribe to our free newsletter and make a donation to ensure our continued growth and independence.
Photograph courtesy of Joel Schalit. All rights reserved.
Congratualtions!