Safety of Journalists CFOM Sheffield

The Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield (UK) is an interdisciplinary research centre with global outreach on issues of media freedom, journalism safety, editorial standards and impunity. During the 2022 Academic Consultation on the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, CFOM conducted a literature stocktake to scope out academic literature published in the area of media freedom, journalism safety and impunity. CFOM collated this information and produced a literature database organised by themes or countries for accessibility. The collection is especially strong on country- and region-specific safety issues and on surveys of emotional wellbeing of journalists. This special collection is curated by gemma.horton@sheffield.ac.uk.

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Killing with Impunity: Vast Majority of Journalists’ Murderers Go Free. 2022 Global Impunity Index

Jennifer Dunham

New York: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) (2022), 5 pp.

"The 2022 Global Impunity Index found that no one has been held to account for nearly 80% of 263 journalist murders over the past 10 years worldwide. CPJ seeks justice for these slain journalists, including full and timely investigations and the convictions of those who carry out and order the murde ... more

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Proteção dos jornalistas: Segurança e justiça na América Latina e no Caribe

Rosental Alves (coord.)

Knight Center (2022), 101 pp.

"Neste livro, propomo-nos a percorrer essas tentativas, realizadas em diferentes frentes: redações, grupos de jornalistas, associações de mídia, governos ou promotores. E são os próprios jornalistas que contam como foram essas experiências. Este livro é produto de uma série de reportagens ... more

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External Interference in a Hybrid Media Environment

Ilmari Hiltunen

Journalism Practice, volume 16, issue 10 (2022), pp. 2106-2124

"Contemporary journalists face a multitude of external pressures and threats, ranging from political and commercial interference to online harassment and increasing anti-press hostility. This empirical article examines how the hybridization of the media environment is reflected in journalists’ exp ... more

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More than just collateral damage. Ramifications of the pandemic for freedom of the press

Christina Holtz-Bacha

Publizistik, volume 67 (2022), pp. 31–50

"Confronted with a situation that was new to everyone, world leaders sought the best way to contain the pandemic caused by the coronavirus. The measures introduced, with lockdowns and curfews, affected fundamental rights such as freedom of movement and assembly, with implications for freedom of expr ... more

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Trauma-Informed Journalism

Kevin J. Becker, Lori Shontz

In: Trauma in Adult and Higher Education: Conversations and Critical Reflections

Laura Douglass, Aubry Threlkeld, Lisa R. Merriweather (eds.)

Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing (2022), pp. 205-220

"Covering stories of tragedy and trauma is commonplace for journalists. To date, no organized or consistent approaches for teaching journalists about the impacts of trauma on their own lives, and the lives of those that are impacted by tragedy, have been developed. Journalists are left on their own ... more

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Keeping Journalists Safe Online: A Guide for Newsrooms in West Africa & Beyond

Gideon Sarpong

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2022), 27 pp.

"The guidelines contained here specify steps and measures that newsrooms and journalists in West Africa can take to mitigate the problem of online abuse. The purpose is not to shield journalists from criticism or promote the criminalization of online speech, but to deal with a real threat facing jou ... more

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Why collective resilience in journalism matters: A call to action in global media development

Jeannine E. Relly, Silvio Waisbord

Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies, volume 11, issue 2 (2022), pp. 163-188

"The COVID-19 pandemic, global economic downturn, anti-press violence and worsening situation of labour precarity for journalists around the world have led to increased stress, trauma and burnout in the profession, which raises questions at the heart of media sustainability and approaches to media d ... more

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Cómo prepararse para reportear situaciones de alto riesgo

Malva Izquierdo

Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2022), 28 pp.

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Security Considerations When Engaging Sensitive Sources

Lukasz Król, Harlo Holmes

Internews (2022), 5 pp.

"These recommendations are targeted towards individuals working with sensitive sources on high-level projects that uncover government or corporate misdeeds. We have drafted a few additional steps you should keep in mind if you will be communicating with sensitive sources. Following the below steps w ... more

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An Intersectional Analysis of U.S. Journalists’ Experiences With Hostile Sources

Kelsey Mesmer

Journalism & Communication Monographs, volume 24, issue 3 (2022), pp. 156-216

"Given rising hostility toward journalists in the United States, this monograph illuminates how journalists experience hostility from news sources. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews with U.S. journalists, this project uses the theory of intersectionality to understand how journalists experienced hos ... more

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National Human Rights Institutions and Journalist Safety

Binod Bhattarai

Copenhagen: International Media Support (IMS) (2022), 98 pp.

"This report explores the role of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in South and Southeast Asia – Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan – and how their engagement in supporting national protection mechanisms for journalists can contribute to upholding their mandate of promoting ... human rights for all. Indonesia has an estimated 100,000 journalists in a population of over 271 million people. Its geography represents a challenge for monitoring violations of press freedom and the safety of journalists. In Indonesia, journalists’ and civil society groups have begun to support vulnerable journalists and to collaborate on setting up a national safety mechanism for them. Such a mechanism could involve existing organisations of journalists, the National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia, the Press Council and other state agencies. Preliminary consultations are assessing which institutions might anchor such a mechanism and whether the existing legal framework is appropriate or adequate. Nepal saw a rise in the persecution and assassinations of journalists during the Maoist government conflict (1996-2006) and the long transition to a new constitution (2006-2015). Some perpetrators were prosecuted successfully, but many cases remain open. Nepal was one of the first countries whose NHRI considered the establishment of a mechanism for journalists’ safety. The Nepal National Human Rights Commission and the Federation of Nepali Journalists began working towards this in 2012, and their efforts culminated in 2019 when the Nepal National Human Rights Commission approved a directive to establish a multi-stakeholder mechanism for upholding the freedom of expression of all citizens, including journalists. Pakistan has one of the world’s highest rates of impunity for crimes against journalists, despite the formidable efforts of journalists’ and civil society groups. For example, out of over 140 journalist deaths, only three perpetrators have been prosecuted and all three verdicts were overturned on appeal. However, change could be in the air: Pakistan enacted a new national law in 2021 – based on one adopted earlier by a provincial government – to protect journalists’ safety. While this legislation is welcome, those laws do not include a role for the Pakistan National Commission of Human Rights and thus could be more robust, according to journalists’ and civil society groups. The Philippines is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, but the government has begun working with its NHRI on a multi-stakeholder mechanism to protect them. Since 1986, 234 journalists and media professionals in the Philippines have been killed, including 19 after President Rodrigo Duterte took charge of the administration in October 2016. According to media and civil society groups, state agencies have allegedly been involved in 114 attacks and threats against journalists and civil society advocates who had first been “red-tagged” by the authorities for their supposed links with armed communist insurgents and/or “terrorism”. In July 2018, the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) adopted a resolution to form a taskforce with a mandate to monitor and investigate media-related extrajudicial killings. This led to more collaboration between the CHR, media and civil society groups. As a result, the Philippine Action Plan on the Safety of Journalists was launched in November 2019, as part of a threeyear European Union project that seeks to establish a national multi-stakeholder mechanism for the safety of journalists." (Executive summary, pages 9-10) more

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Safety of Journalists in Non-EU Countries: State and Non-State Protection Mechanisms and the Role of the EU

Tamsin Mitchell

European Parliament (2022), ix, 51 pp.

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Empowering Civil Society: The Theatricality of Protest in Malta

Vicki Ann Cremona

New Theatre Quarterly, volume 38, issue 2 (2022), pp. 125-138

"The recent barbaric murder of an investigative journalist in Malta who was looking into corruption at the top echelons of power sparked off a civil society movement, Repubblika, spurring ordinary citizens into participating in collective protest action. The movement also incorporated a loose groupi ... more

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“It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you”: Navigating risk to journalists when connected devices are everywhere

Anjuli R. K. Shere, Jason R. C. Nurse, Andrew Martin

IAMCR 2022 Conference “Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation: Reorientations, Challenges and Changing Contexts” (2022), 18 pp.

"The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast-growing area of technology, increasingly embedded in the public and private spheres, including both in and on bodies. There are various security concerns and academic investigations into potential risks of this expansion, but none yet specifically add ... ressing the implications to journalists and the democratic pillar of press freedom. Not only are risks to this community not yet assessed, but IoT threats generally are not communicated without technical jargon, making them inaccessible to non-experts. Given the importance of a free press, mapping IoT devices and, crucially, communicating associated risk in ways understandable and actionable to journalists themselves, is key. Journalists and the press are particularly at-risk from IoT devices that may feature in the environments with which they must regularly interact because of the fundamental imperative of source confidentiality. Previous research demonstrated that members of the press are largely unaware of the ways in which the IoT can threaten their work and wellbeing. The networked capabilities of IoT devices increases the ease with which well-resourced threat actors can target journalists who routinely handle confidential information and are already at risk around the world from a variety of non-IoT threats. This paper therefore presents a novel categorisation of both ambient and wearable consumer IoT devices according to the environments in which journalists are most likely to interact with them. It draws on related academic work classifying devices for technical audiences to create a system that is accessible to journalists and their sources. Its goal is to make members of the media aware of the prevalence of these technologies and which of the devices’ capabilities may increase their individual risk. Useful risk assessments cannot be undertaken without an accurate understanding of where threats may be encountered. By systematically outlining risks in numerous environments, this taxonomy can be easily incorporated into existing security training materials and risk assessments for journalists. This paper presents a novel taxonomy to codify and organise IoT present in different environments, with examples of how journalists and their work could be impacted, both passively (i.e. via surveillance) or actively (i.e. via information theft). It also discusses how different environments that may contain IoT devices are often under the control of actors whom journalists cannot easily influence, nor protect themselves against. Especially as these devices continue to proliferate, journalistic risk from IoT devices in surrounding environments are growing. It is therefore important to address the contemporary and emerging risks to journalism that are associated with connected devices. This paper enables journalists and readers to not only visualise and conceptualise how IoT devices in different environments may create risks, its user-focused language and organisation also empower journalists to begin to use this taxonomy for awareness, mitigation, and protective purposes." (Abstract) more

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Shifting Cyberfeminism and Gendered Activisms in the Gulf: A Saudi Feminist Spring?

Sahar Khamis

Journal of Arabian Studies, volume 12, issue 1 (2022), pp. 1-23

"This qualitative feminist study sheds light on women’s shifting identities, struggles, and resistances in the most conservative Gulf state, Saudi Arabia, unpacking the shifting socio-political and mediated environments in this country and their impact on gendered activism. Through conducting in-d ... more

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Contextualizing Psychological Outcomes for TV News Journalists: Role Differences in Industry Culture, Organizational Hierarchy and Trauma Exposure

Jasmine B. MacDonald, Rachael Fox, Anthony J. Saliba

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, volume 35, issue 1 (2022), pp. 255-279

"Research indicates that TV news journalists’ ongoing exposure to trauma can result in psychopathology. However, we currently know little about potential differences in trauma exposure between individuals in varying journalistic roles. The aim of this study is to contextualize the existing knowled ... more

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Caught in the Middle: Internal and External Pressures on the Coverage of Organized Crime in Mexico

Elba Díaz-Cerveró, Daniel Barredo-Ibáñez, Rubén Arnoldo González Macías

Sage Open, volume 12, issue April-June (2022), 11 pp.

"With 33 journalists killed since the beginning of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidential term in December 2018, Mexico heads the list of the most violent countries for journalists in Latin America—and that of countries not at war. While journalist organizations demand a meaningful protect ... more

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An Uphill Battle: From Impunity to Justice for Journalist Murders
Deep Insights

Evelien Wijkstra, Jos Midas Bartman

Free Press Unlimited (2022), 31 pp.

"For this report we analyzed hundreds of cases of journalists who were murdered in reprisal for their work. What stands out is their courage to report misdemeanor by those in power despite the clear and often well-known risks this entails for them. What stands out as well is the lack of capacity in ... more

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Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Nigerian Journalists Towards Safety Protocols in an Insecure and Covid-19 Pandemic Nation

Fidelis Ndidiamaka Asogwa, Monday Ogodo Ogodo, Ibe Nkechinyere Awo

Melting Pot, volume 6, issue 2 (2022), pp. 87-102

"This paper examines the knowledge, attitudes and practices of Nigerian journalists towards safety protocols especially within security and COVID-19 in Nigeria. The study adopted the survey methodology and relied on questionnaire as instrument of primary data collection. The population of the study ... more

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Violence Against Female Journalists in Indonesia: A Threat to Journalism and Freedom of the Press

Engelbertus Wendratama, Rahayu, Novi Kurnia, Puji Rianto, Monika Pretty Aprilia

Pemantau Regulasi dan Regulator Media (PR2Media); USAID (2022), 110 pp.

"This research was conducted through a survey (involving 1,256 respondents) and interviews (six informants) of female journalists in 191 cities, representing western, central, and eastern parts of Indonesia. This survey included 25 questions about the respondents’ violence experiences related to t ... more

An Uphill Battle: From Impunity to Justice for Journalist Murders Deep Insights

An Uphill Battle: From Impunity to Justice for Journalist Murders
Deep Insights