About
The Independent is Newfoundland and Labrador’s premiere outlet for progressive news and analysis, and we do it without the corporate funding that other media outlets depend on.
Formed from the ashes of its predecessor—an award-winning print newspaper that ran from 2003-2008 in St. John’s—The Independent launched as an online publication in early 2011. It was on the verge of folding six months later, but contributors and a devoted readership recognized the dire need for independent journalism in the province. Editors Justin Brake and Rhea Rollmann, who assumed leadership of the publication following the collapse of its for-profit structure, oversaw The Independent’s transformation to a not-for-profit media collective. Since then, The Indy has become a trailblazer in Canadian independent journalism.
In 2016, The Independent covered the growing Indigenous-led protest movement against the controversial Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam. When land protectors occupied the Muskrat Falls workers’ camp in October 2016, Brake followed and provided exclusive on-site coverage of the occupation. Provincial crown energy corporation Nalcor Energy pursued charges against Brake and the RCMP later laid criminal charges against him in what would become an unprecedented challenge to press freedom in Canada. A victory in the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal further solidified Canadians’ constitutional right to press freedom, and in 2020 the final charges against Brake were dropped.
For more than a decade, The Independent has provided readers with powerful investigative reporting and community-centred news coverage grounded in a commitment to decolonization and social justice, operating within a professional journalistic framework. Its strong opinion and commentary sections have provided space for a wider diversity of viewpoints, perspectives and insights than any other publication in the province’s history. The Independent has also covered the province’s vibrant arts scene, for a period of time producing its own journal of creative arts as a supplementary publication.
The Independent and its contributors have won numerous journalism awards over the years, most recently two RTDNA Canada awards in 2025 and four Atlantic Journalism Awards in 2024. The Indy also took home AJAs in 2023, 2021, and 2017. In 2004, a reporter from The Indy earned one of Canada’s top accolades, a Michener Award for Public Service Journalism. In 2018, for his work covering Muskrat Falls and his subsequent fight for press freedom, Brake earned the Canadian Committee for Press Freedom Award, the 2018 PEN Canada/Ken Filkow Prize for Freedom of Expression, and the Elias Boudinot Free Press Award from the Native American Journalists Association in the U.S.
The Independent has been described (by CBC) as “feisty” and “the scrappy low-budget underdog of the local media scene, always up for a fight.”
We do not rely on ad revenue and we reject paywalls as contrary to the mission of accessible, public-service journalism. The Indy relies on grants, fundraising, and above all the support of a growing body of subscribers who support our mission to provide voice and coverage to the peoples of this province and the issues that matter to them.
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The Independent publishes Local Journalism Initiative stories with financial support from the Government of Canada.
