Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/press-freedom-2/page/10/)
A panel of Asia experts at GIJC21 unanimously agreed that press freedom in the region faces a bleak future, as governments increasingly use digital platforms to manipulate communities and increase hostility towards journalists.
Afghan journalist Zahra Joya, 28, is not hopeful of a bright future for women journalists in her country. In November 2020, she used her personal savings to recruit five women journalists and start Rukhshana Media. They wanted to go around the country and tell the stories of maternal mortality, domestic violence and women’s reproductive health. Since then, they have published stories on the taboo of menstruation, child marriage, street harassment, gender discrimination and what it means to live as a survivor of rape.
Marking the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, a panel of experts at GIJC21 revealed that investigating journalist murders can not only turn impunity into justice, but can also deter ruthless actors from potential future violence.
Attendees to GIJC21’s plenary session were asked three questions about the challenges to democracy in their countries, and the role of journalism in upholding or weakening democratic values and institutions. The poll results reflect the threats faced by reporters around the world, from disinformation, fake news, and extremism.
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.
Myanmar’s new regime leaders escalated their forceful crackdown on nationwide protests with sweeping restrictions on the media, severely curtailing independent journalism in particular, and opening the way for serious environmental crimes.
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.
The digital security risk to investigative journalism was reaffirmed this month with the release of the Pegasus Project. This involved collaborative reporting by 17 global media outlets on a list of thousands of leaked phone numbers allegedly selected for possible surveillance by government clients of Israeli firm NSO Group. At least 180 journalists are implicated as targets. It also sheds light on four chilling cases profile here.
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.
Since 1998, El Faro has fought for accountability in El Salvador, a Central American country saddled with stubborn poverty, a history of civil conflict, and pervasive criminal gangs. But after decades of investigating criminal organizations, corruption, and illegal practices by security forces, the newspaper might be facing one of its greatest challenges yet.