For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads in English from around the world, we came across the launch of The Media Manipulation Casebook, a piece on how to make your newsletter a key revenue driver, and a supportive — if implemented — UN resolution on the safety of journalists.
From where to pitch to how to avoid being sued, and how much you should be getting paid for your work: a new, nine-part GIJN-resource covers the business side of doing investigative journalism. The guide covers a variety of subjects, aiming to help both individuals and media institutions by providing practical tips and advice.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network condemns attacks by law enforcement on journalists in the US covering protests of the police killing of George Floyd. “The attacks on, and intimidation of, journalists legitimately covering protests and social unrest in the US are unconstitutional and unlawful,” stated the executive committee of the GIJN Board of Directors. “These attacks… threaten the very core of a free and democratic society.”
Like health professionals, care givers, and other essential workers, journalists face heightened and grave health risks as they pursue crucial stories on the COVID-19 crisis. But measuring coronavirus deaths among media workers poses many of the same problems as counting true mortality figures in the general population. The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a nonprofit focused on press freedom, recorded 64 deaths in 24 countries by May 5.
This past week, the Pen Chapter of San Miguel de Allende honored the 16 journalists murdered this year with an offering typical for Día de Muertos celebration in Mexico. In each home, those who have passed away are remembered with an altar, decorated with flowers, candles, objects, and food that those who have passed away liked when they were alive.
The cold-blooded murder of Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak was also a cold slap across the face of modern Europe. That the public watchdogs could be halted simply by a brutal act of violence seems to portend a further breakdown of European values. Is it possible to legislate better security? There could be.
At a time when press freedom is deteriorating in many states participating in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, having a voice to raise journalist cases and hold governments to account is vital. In a recent interview, the organization’s new Freedom of the Media representative Harlem Désir discusses his plans and explains why he is prioritizing journalist safety, fighting impunity and combating violent extremism online.
Esther Htusan, who was part of AP’s all-female Pulitzer Prize-winning team for a series on forced labor in Southeast Asia’s fishing industry, shares her experiences working as a journalist in Myanmar. She emphasizes the safety procedures that her newsroom and herself practices while reporting conflicts, and the struggles and roles of women journalists in Myanmar.
