The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom is a co-operative owned by its members and registered under German and European law as a European Co-operative Society SCE. That means it is an independent non-profit body that qualifies for grants from charitable foundations, local, national and international bodies, philanthropists and commercial donors.
Its launch in 2015 was facilitated by a grant from the European Commission, requiring six partner organisations to deliver a secretariat in Leipzig, a Media Freedom Resource Centre (online library), monitoring reports on journalists under threat and establishing criteria for assessing legal cases.
In addition the ECPMF has received in-kind and financial support from the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig, from the City of Leipzig, the State of Saxony and the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.