Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://gijn.org/category/press-freedom/)
Even after the coup in Myanmar, Frontier Myanmar has continued reporting on socio-economic issues. Publishing deeply reported pieces has made them popular among their readers. However, the entire website is now behind a paywall and available only to paying members — rates that are high for an average news consumer within a country where roughly 37% of the people live below the poverty line.
In an environment of increasing restrictions on civic organizations and impunity for crimes against press professionals, independent media in Guatemala are battling threats on several fronts. Here, journalists from three Guatemalan digital media outlets detail the strategies and tools they are using both to survive and to produce quality investigative stories.
In a RightsCon session hosted by GIJN, three editors shared survival strategies for independent newsrooms in authoritarian nations, as threats to the press, and institutions of accountability, grow around the world. They described a form of journalistic judo, where journalists can find advantages in the very tactics used to repress them.
Serbia’s investigative nonprofits face an extraordinary array of threats and harassment due to a new model in which autocrats outsource repression to oligarchs, pro-government media, street gangs, and other proxies. In a series of interviews, three leading editors told GIJN about the sinister tactics they face, and the determination required to keep accountability alive.
Monday, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day, a global day of recognition for journalists around the world, particularly those who are standing up for truth and revealing information in the public interest despite political intimidation, government oppression, and threats of violence.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network condemns the raid today on the Moscow apartment of Roman Anin, one of Russia’s leading independent journalists, by agents of the Federal Security Bureau. Mr. Anin, the editor of IStories, is widely regarded as one of the world’s top investigative reporters, and this move by officials can only be interpreted as an attempt to silence his journalism. Along with Mr. Anin’s many awards, he was a 2019 John S. Knight Journalism fellow and honored with last year’s Trailblazer Award from the International Center for Journalists. GIJN represents 211 media organizations in 82 countries. We will be watching closely to ensure that Mr. Anin is treated fairly under Russian and international law.
Investigative reporting is getting harder and harder as autocratic governments crack down on media and government-friendly oligarchs use the courts to silence independent voices. The Philippine online news organization Rappler and its CEO and Executive Editor Maria Ressa are experiencing this firsthand, as Ressa was convicted last week on baseless “cyber libel” charges.
