“There certainly appears to be a worrying trend around the world where powerful companies or public officials attempt to censor public participation on matters of public interest through lawsuits, for instance in the law of defamation,” explained Dario Milo, a South Africa-based attorney who specializes in communication law and is a member of the European Union’s Expert Group on SLAPPs.
In the first article in a short series, the Media Development Investment Fund looked at the first two of the four major elements of media capture: capture of the media regulator, and control of the public service broadcaster. In this article, it looks at the use of state financing as a control tool, and taking ownership to interfere in editorial.
Newsletters are popular because their offering is different from the information that is dangerously filtered and molded by social media giant’s random, opaque algorithms. GIJN has selected five original newsletters that can inspire journalists around the world.
In this year’s GIJN’s Editor’s Pick series, Bangla editor Miraj Chowdhury writes that, despite many free speech and coronavirus-related challenges, there are numerous examples of important journalistic investigations taking place in the region. Here are some of the stories that mattered the most in 2020 for the 215 million Bangla speakers around the world.
In this edition of Document of the Day, we feature a new report out today from Freedom House, a US-based think tank, about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected digital freedoms around the world. The report includes details on governments’ actions that have curtailed citizens’ access to open information on the web, and the website features and interactive map where users can see which countries made the “free” list and which ones didn’t.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the way journalists work, not least because many authorities have cited the contagion as a reason to crack down on the news media. Certain dangers will subside with time but some of the measures put into place that restrict press freedom – whether intended or not — could continue well into the future.
Here’s a guide to understanding how the government in China regulates and controls the media. Jin Ding explains the relationship between Chinese news publications and the state’s ruling Chinese Communist Party, the methods of censorship, media funding, and notable publications to follow.
Reporters Sans Frontieres published, for the first time, a list of press freedom’s 20 worst digital predators in 2020. Whether state offshoots, private-sector companies, or informal entities, they reflect a reality of power at the end of the 21st century’s second decade, in which investigative reporters and other journalists who cause displeasure risk being the targets of predatory activity by often hidden actors.
Reporters, especially the most independent, critical, and investigative ones, have long been at the receiving end of autocratic governments’ intolerance of dissent. What’s new is the use of the internet and social media platforms to undermine journalists’ credibility, combined with a more sophisticated application of legal instruments and bureaucratic punitive measures, writes GIJN Spanish Editor Catalina Lobo-Guerrero.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its latest ranking of the world’s most censored countries, with Eritrea at number one. This Top 10 list is based on CPJ’s research into tactics to muzzle independent reporting, which range from imprisonment to surveillance and restrictions on internet access.
