Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/tag/press-freedom-2/page/4/)
Like spyware, forensic tools can access everything on a phone or computer, but unlike spyware, such tools are in widespread, open usage in democracies as well as more repressive regimes. Their use has accelerated threats to the press while protections and public awareness lag behind.
Censorship. Imprisonment. Threats and violence. Online harassment. Legal battles. Exile. The list of challenges facing investigative reporters in Latin America is extensive. But despite the difficulties, journalists across the region are doing incredible work and holding those in power to account with their reporting.
The Uğur Mumcu Investigative Journalism Foundation — a GIJN member since 2018 — plays a unique role in Turkey. Decades after its creation, it is still training investigative journalists in the country’s increasingly polarized media environment.
Being an investigative journalist in the Middle East and North Africa was immensely challenging in 2022, thanks to the dramatic decline in press freedom in places once considered safer for journalists such as North Africa, the lack of human and financial resources, and the inability to access data and public information in most Arab countries.
GIJN’s Hindi editor offers his picks for the best investigative journalism stories from India during 2022.
Intrepid journalists are still conducting investigations on countries within the Arab Gulf region, but due to political repression and other press freedom issues, they’ve had to report from afar or build and operate their independent media sites while in exile.
Some of the most notable stories in German-language journalism this year revealed that many good guys in public life were, as it turned out, not so good. The following stories examine public figures from sports, the media, and far-right networks, and also show how big players — such as sportswear behemoth Nike, the fintech company Wirecard, or multinational energy giant RWE — behave when they think nobody’s watching.
GIJN spoke with International Symposium on Online Journalism founder, Rosental Alves, about the growing backlash against independent media in Latin America.
Because of growing threats to democracy, and a recent series of ever more extreme societal and planetary crises, funders now see more clearly the pivotal, central role that independent public interest media play in keeping our societies and economies open. And what’s even more encouraging is to see this positive talk backed up with concrete measures and actions.
This guide was written by GIJN staff reporter Rowan Philp and edited by Nikolia Apostolou, Reed Richardson, and Laura Dixon. Illustrations are by Marcelle Louw.