Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://gijn.org/tag/press-freedom-2/)
Researchers have found evidence that attacks on press freedom — such as jailing journalists, raiding their homes, shutting down printing presses, and using libel laws to thwart reporters — have measurable effects on a nation’s economic growth.
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.
Secularism in the world’s largest democracy is threatened by a Hindu-nationalist movement that takes pages from the playbooks of authoritarian leaders around the world. In this longread, journalist Maddy Crowell shares the first-hand story of one New Delhi-based magazine that is trying to protect democracy in India when other news outlets fail to hold power to account.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads from around the world in English, we’ve been reading about misinformation in both pandemic and election coverage, a slew of how-tos on doing data journalism in R, and the latest research on measuring impact.
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.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network is outraged and alarmed by the conviction of our colleagues Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos for cyberlibel in a Philippines regional court. Maria Ressa, the founder and executive editor of Rappler, was the keynote speaker at the 2019 conference of GIJN, which represents 184 nonprofit investigative journalism organizations in 77 countries. She is a journalist of unquestioned integrity, representing the best of her nation’s long tradition of investigative reporting.
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.
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.”
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.
