Local reporters have been finding innovative ways to report on the death and devastation caused by India’s devastating second wave of the coronavirus – even as the authorities tried to downplay the severity of the crisis. Bhavya Dore speaks to reporters who staked out the banks of the river Ganges and stationed themselves outside morgues and hospitals to investigate what was really happening.
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.
The search of a journalist’s phone in detention exemplifies the threat digital forensics technologies pose to privacy and press freedom around the world. In Botswana, journalists recount the frightening state of government surveillance, powered by international technology companies.
In 2018, private investigator Igor Ostrovskiy revealed to US investigative reporter Ronan Farrow that he was spying on him, and became a whistleblower on the threat of “hunting journalists.” Ostrovskiy recently briefed journalists on how to deal with the growing menace of physical surveillance.
In August 2020, the leaders of Thailand’s pro-democracy movement published a list of demands after tens of thousands of reformists joined their call to take to the streets. Only one local media outlet dared to publish them: Prachatai, a bold start-up committed to promoting freedom of expression and democracy.
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.
On this World Press Freedom Day, we call on the Russian government to uphold its responsibility to protect and defend freedom of the press. In 1998, the Russian Federation signed the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression for all citizens and the right “to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”
Being really good at getting people to tell you government secrets — the key to career success as a national security reporter — now brings great danger to a reporter’s sources.
In early April, Russian authorities raided the Moscow apartment of IStories editor Roman Anin, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s top investigative reporters. In response to the raid, IStories’ lawyer, Vasily Grischak, gave a briefing to journalists on how to deal with a police raid — tips which GIJN has translated here.
