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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Google Scholar (216)

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Egyptian Women Journalists’ Feminist Voices in a Shifting Digitalized Journalistic Field

Sahar Khamis, Rasha El-Ibiary

Digital Journalism, volume 10, issue 7 (2022), pp. 1238-1256

"This qualitative feminist study analyzes Egyptian women journalists’ articulations of their shifting roles, struggles, and resistances to the political, legal, socio-economic, and professional challenges in a shifting, hybrid, and digitalized journalistic field. Through analyzing 16 interviews wi ... more

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Periodismo SOS: Del filantrocapitalismo al poder que mata

Aurora Labio-Bernal, Lorena R. Romero-Domínguez

Madrid: Ediciones Pirámide (2022), 232 pp.

"Las autoras desarrollan una investigación para encontrar los orígenes del filantroperiodismo como un nuevo escenario laboral. Al igual que la persecución de los poderes extralegales a los periodistas que cuentan la realidad. Como consecuencia, el libro desarrolla un análisis de la situación de ... more

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Lives, Jobs, Homeland: Afghan Women Journalists Lose All

Association of Women in Radio and Television (AWRT-K) (2022), 52 pp.

"According to a survey conducted by Reporters without Borders (RSF) in December 2021, from 10,790 people working in Afghan media (8,290 men and 2,490 women) at the start of August 2021, only 4,360 (3,950 men and 410 women) were still working and the number may reduce even further. For this survey, d ... ata were collected through online and in-person manual surveys in May 2022. The questionnaire included 23 questions and was completed by 308 respondents in Dari (75.97%) and Pashto (24.03%). All 100 percent respondents were female. The survey largely represented reporters (54.87%), followed by journalists (19.16%), producers (9.74%), presenters (3.90%) and others (12.01%). [...] A majority of respondents (67.86%) reported that they have lost their jobs since the de facto authorties’ takeover of Afghanistan in August. The highest ratio of respondents having lost their jobs compared to the respondents interviewed were in Bamyan (100%), followed by Kandahar (91%), Balkh (85%), Badakhshan (68%) and Kabul (62%). 60.39% of respondents reported that they have felt ‘major changes’ since the collapse of the former government. In addition, 28.90% respondents reported changes in some cases. As for the level of restrictions imposed on reporting since the de facto authorities’ takeover of power, an astounding 80.52% of respondents reported the case to be ‘very restricted’. As far as the reporting autonomy is concerned, 45.13% respondents mentioned that ‘Government Interferences have Increased’, while 35.71% responded as ‘Bad’ meaning the independency in journalists’ reporting is bad. 46.75% of respondents mentioned that the de facto authorities’ spokespersons do not respond to female journalists, followed by 29.55% who mentioned that they do respond, but just in some cases. All 100% of the respondents reported that they have received some kind of threat since the de facto authorities have taken over the power, and reported the major threat against female journalists to be the new restrictions imposed by the de facto authorities (52.9%), followed by the gender-based discrimination (18.8%), and threats posed by extremist groups (16.9%). A majority of the respondents (55.19%) reported that they were restricted from their work specifically due to their outfit/sense of clothing and some (27.92%) reported that they have experienced the same but to some extent only." (Executive summary, pages 5-6) 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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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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A critical analysis of journalists’ freedom of expression and access to information while reporting on COVID-19 issues: A case of selected Arab countries

Miral Sabry AlAshry

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, volume 20, issue 2 (2022), pp. 193-212

"The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which Arab Governments limited freedom of expression and access to information for journalists while they reported on COVID-19-related issues. Design/methodology/approach: Focus group discussions were conducted with 20 journalists from Egypt ... more

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Equally Safe: Towards a Feminist Approach to the Safety of Journalists
Deep Insights

Jennifer Robinson, Keina Yoshida et al.

London: Article 19 (2022), 63 pp.

"In 2021, ARTICLE 19 set out to make sometimes invisible practices more visible, building on our existing programmes on the safety of women journalists worldwide. We undertook original research globally and specifically in six countries, three in Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and three in ... more

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SLAPPs against journalists across Europe

Article 19; Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) (2022), 86 pp.

"This report provides a Europe-wide overview of lawsuits that are taken to stifle scrutiny and public debate on issues such as corruption, mismanagement of public resources, and human rights violations. Such lawsuits, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are taken by pow ... more

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Report on Open Source Digital Safety Tool Ecosystem

Internews (2022), 18 pp.

"This is a report on the health of the open-source digital safety tool ecosystem that draws from the BASICS experience. Internews' BASICS project (Building Analytical and Support Infrastructure for Critical Security tools) was a 30-month initiative to strengthen the capacity of open source digital s ... more

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Google Scholar (223)

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“Playing” in the Eyes of the Ferret Team: Examining the Use of Surveillance Strategies by Zimbabwean Journalists

Lungile A. Tshuma, Mbongeni J. Msimanga, Makhosi N. Sibanda

African Journalism Studies, volume 43, issue 1 (2022), pp. 53-69

"The Zimbabwean state has in recent years stepped up its surveillance efforts on citizens, civil society and journalists who are viewed as the “enemies of the state”. This state surveillance has been argued to infringe on citizens’ right to privacy and access to information. We are mindful tha ... more

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Associations among traumatic experiences, threat exposure, and mental health in Pakistani journalists

Suzanna M. Koster, Hans M. Koot, Jamil A. Malik, Marit Sijbrandij

Journal of Traumatic Stress, volume 35, issue 2 (2022), pp. 581-592

"Pakistan is considered to be relatively unsafe for journalists; however, little is known about how working in situations that involve a high risk of trauma exposure and personal threat impacts journalists' mental health. The present study aimed to examine the associations among reporting on topics ... more

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Economic crisis and trauma journalism: Assessing the emotional toll of reporting in crisis-ridden countries

Lambrini Papadopoulou, Theodora A. Maniou, Eleana Pandia

Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, volume 47, issue 3 (2022), pp. 350-374

"This article discusses the relationship between the post-2008 global economic crisis and trauma journalism through a quantitative study of reporters covering austerity’s everyday manifestations and examines the effects on the media professionals involved. The findings indicate that journalists wh ... more

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Strict Fanaticism and Radicalism with the Post Battle on Dread Situation in Pakistan: Security Worries for Media Reporters in Kp

Azam Jan, Irem Sultana, Malik Adnan

Pakistan Journal of Linguistics, volume 4, issue 1 (2022), pp. 1-15

"Geo-strategically, Pakistan is placed in the region that has been frayed by wars conflict since the USSR’s (1979) invasion of Afghanistan. Since, Pakistan is sharing one of the longest borders with Afghanistan, hence could not remain impervious. The region, specially, Pakistan had not yet fully r ... more

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Protection of Editorial Cartoonists: Practical Guide

Cartooning for Peace (2022), 91 pp.

"In 2016, Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI) published the extremely helpful “Safety Manual for Political Cartoonists in Trouble”— the only one of its kind to this day. Thanks to the support of the European Union, Cartooning for Peace presents this guide which we hope will expand ... 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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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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”You have to prove the threat is real”: Understanding the needs of Female Journalists and Activists to Document and Report Online Harassment

Nitesh Goyal, Leslie Park, Lucy Vasserman

CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI' 22), New Orleans; ACM (2022), 17 pp.

"Online harassment is a major societal challenge that impacts multiple communities. Some members of community, like female journalists and activists, bear significantly higher impacts since their profession requires easy accessibility, transparency about their identity, and involves highlighting sto ... more

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Media Environment and Safety of Journalists During the Crisis in Georgia: Threats and Supportive Instruments

Mariam Gersamia, Maia Toradze

Environment and Society, volume 5, issue 5 (2022), 1 pp.

"Viable, free media is a crucial component of democratic progress in Georgia. Thirty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and gaining independence, the safety of journalists while carrying out professional duties continues to be one of the critical indicators of progress in the country's med ... ia democracy. This research was triggered by the actualization of the acute and, in some ways, spontaneous media threat that arose during the pre-election period. More specifically, on July 5, 2021, two months before Georgia's local self-government municipal elections, media workers fell victim to a premeditated attack by pro-Russian radical groups during the coverage of demonstrations. As a result, 52 journalists from more than ten media outlets, camera operators, and photographers were assaulted. A TV Pirveli cameraman, Lekso Lashkarava, died a few days later due to severe injuries received during the demonstration. The research aims to distinguish the traits prevalent in the media environment during times of crisis and, even more specifically, during the pre-and post-election periods (particularly during the 2021 local government elections in Georgia). The research also responds to how political polarization and crises affect media and the macro and micro threats they reveal. The study identifies these media threats and assesses the reality of the media environment as seen through journalists' eyes. The research covers topics recommended by UNESCO (Towards a Research agenda on the safety of journalists) and examines seven of those ten recommended issues. A mixed research methodology was chosen for research design, more specifically, a sequential explanatory design. The research was conducted in two phases: the first phase involved the accumulation of quantitative data (through an online survey of 183 respondents from 56 media sources) and analysis, followed which the second phase involved qualitative research (3 focus group discussions). The research answers the questions as follows: How safe do media workers feel when performing their professional duties? What kind of threats have emerged during the 2021 pre-election media environment, and what are the expectations? What are some of the support mechanisms for improving the media environment, and what needs to be done to create a safer environment for media workers? Macro (4) and micro (6) media threats were identified during the research process. They are analyzed in sub-chapters in greater detail. These threats are interconnected and have their structure and aims. Media threats, which emerged during the discussion, contribute to self-censorship and escalation of fear, media credibility, reduction of support, and destabilizing media institutional viability. Political polarization and polarization between media organizations were identified as major macro media threats. Micro threats that were identified as a result of polarization are: Stigmatization of journalists and media (labeling them as biased towards certain political parties) and attempted smear campaigns; They are disrupting the execution of journalist duties. Among such actions are creating obstacles to providing a balanced narrative and bringing a quality media product to the public, primarily reflected in a premeditated restriction to sources and surveillance to disrupt the work process. One macro threat that emerged from the online survey and focus-group analysis was the incitement of physical and verbal violence towards journalists (this includes hate speech and the use of aggressive rhetoric by the state). These media threats reinforce self-censorship and fear, destabilize media institutions' viability and negatively affect the demonstration of solidarity and support toward media. One identified macro-threats towards journalists was the lack of investigation of crimes committed against journalists and impunity as an encouraging factor. Additionally, we could consider the malign nature of the Russian propaganda and malign influence in general as an additional factor, which serves as a leitmotif for the entire discussion on another macro threat. As a result of this study, recommendations have been put forward for various stakeholders. Implementing these recommendations will help create a supportive media environment, encourage solidarity, and improve coordination between different stakeholders during and after crises. Research conducted is by the Media and Communication Educational and Research Center (Georgia) with support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation’s South Caucasus Office and the Federal Republic of Germany’s Federal Foreign Office." (Abstract) more

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Modelling journalists’ coping strategies for occupational hazards in their coverage of protests against police brutality (ENDSARS protests) in Nigeria

Blessing Chinweobo-Onuoha, Elif Asude Tunca, Felix Olajide Talabi, Ayodeji Boluwatife Aiyesimoju, VVictor Oluwole Adefemi, Verlumun Celestine Gever

International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, volume 28, issue 4 (2022), pp. 2439-2446

"Although journalism practice exposes media workers to different levels of occupational hazards, research on the coping strategies is limited. This study made an effort to extend literature in this direction by providing a model that explains the coping strategies of Nigerian journalists who covered ... more

Equally Safe: Towards a Feminist Approach to the Safety of Journalists Deep Insights

Equally Safe: Towards a Feminist Approach to the Safety of Journalists
Deep Insights