"As Chinese politicians hold the power to control the dissemination of political information, beat journalists must guard their relationship with the authorities to expand the boundaries of news reporting; that is, to gain more access to political information and report more sensitive news. What rem
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ains a puzzle is how beat journalists can possibly expand these boundaries. Data from participatory observation and in-depth interviews with journalists reveal that in order to gain more access to political information, they not only serve as political advocates but also seize the opportunity to act as watchdogs. To report more sensitive news without being sanctioned or denounced by the authorities, they coordinate with peers both within and outside the news organization." (Abstract)
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"This book traces the life of free speech in Russia from the final years of the Soviet Union to the present. It shows how long-cherished hopes for an open society in which people would speak freely and tell truth to power fared under Gorbachev’s glasnost; how free speech was a real, if fractured,
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achievement of Yeltsin’s years in power; and how easy it was for Putin to reverse these newly won freedoms, imposing a ‘patrimonial’ media that sits comfortably with old autocratic and feudal traditions. The book explores why this turn seemed so inexorable and now seems so entrenched. It examines the historical legacy, and Russia’s culturally ambivalent perception of freedom, which Dostoyevsky called that ‘terrible gift’. It evaluates the allure of western consumerism and Soviet-era illusions that stunted the initial promise of freedom and democracy. The behaviour of journalists and their apparent complicity in the distortion of their profession come under scrutiny. This ambitious study covering more than 30 years of radical change looks at responses ‘from above’ and ‘from below’, and asks whether the players truly understood what was involved in the practice of free speech." (Abstract)
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"This study focuses on the unprecedented ways in which newspaper journalism helped the cause of democratisation at the height of the economic and political governance crisis, also known as the ‘Zimbabwe Crisis’, from 1997 to 2010. The research is designed as a qualitative case study of The Daily
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News, an independent private newspaper. It was based on semi-structured interviews with respondents, who were mainly journalists and politicians living in Zimbabwe. The analytical lens of alternative media facilitates a construction of how The Daily News and its journalists experienced, reported, confronted and navigated state authoritarianism in a historical moment of political turmoil. The study discusses the complex relationships between the independent and privately owned press, the political opposition and civil society organisations. The research provides an original analysis of the operations of The Daily News and its journalists in the context of a highly undemocratic political moment. Some journalists crossed the floor to join civic and opposition forces in order to confront the state. The state responded through arrests and physical attacks against the journalists; however, journalists continued to work with opposition forces while the government enacted repressive media and security law to curtail coverage of the crisis." (Abstract)
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"This is a broad overview of the role of information in various forms for key actors in dictatorships, including members of the regime, dissident leaders, and the general public. The existing literature implies that information is crucial to the dynamic interactions among these actors, particularly
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in the contentious arenas of elections and collective actions. Not surprisingly, dictatorships create unique challenges for the control, dissemination, and acquisition of information. Strategic secrecy on the part of the dictator leads other actors to question the truthfulness of information he disseminates. To gain credibility in these environments, leaders need to constrain their actions. To appease elites, they can adopt constraining institutions like semi-independent legislatures and elections. When they hope to mobilize the opposition to legitimize these institutions and the masses to demonstrate the strength of their support, dictators must make costly payments, or policy and procedural concessions to get the defiant participants to acquiesce. Dissident leaders and the masses also find communication a difficult task. Dissident leaders often must take costly actions to earn the trust of the masses and help frame the benefits from collective actions in persuasive ways. When taking these actions, dissident leaders operate with limited quality information and must interpret signals from the government and other actors, which can dissuade people from acting or may lead to costly mistakes as the real meaning can get lost in the transmission of secretive information from dissident leaders to prospective participants." (Conclusion)
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"The state’s attempts, in the last few years in particular, to intimidate activists have largely succeeded in slowing the pace of reforms and narrowing their boundaries. However, the intensified Saudi state conflicts with regional and international allies, coupled with reduced oil revenues and inc
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reased public expenditures, create a unique opportunity for reformers. This opportunity can be exploited through the same tactics employed by the state: creating alliances with national constituencies, and harnessing regional and international media and human rights organizations as alternative, influential power centers. If activists pursue these opportunities, they may well come close to achieving the sociopolitical reforms needed for sustainable stability in the kingdom." (Looking ahead, page 7-8)
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"En el artículo se analiza cómo se conformó un entramado de cooperación entre el periodismo, los medios y la Dictadura para construir un orden represivo en el período 1976-1982. La prensa hegemónica ha realizado un trabajo articulado y sistemático para hacer posible el exterminio de un grupo
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social y, luego, para legitimar y para ocultar su destrucción. En las páginas de Editorial Atlántida, y de los diarios Clarín, La Nación, La Nueva Provincia y El Día las autoras examinan algunas de las operaciones criminales de esta maquinaria cultural, en un esfuerzo por construir mapas de verdad que nos permitan acceder a la justicia." (Resumen)
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"Work done internationally to address impunity concentrates on removing blanket amnesties and establishing commissions of inquiry into past atrocities. Everyday impunity—the impossibility of bringing state officers to account for routinized violent crimes against other individuals—gets less atte
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ntion, even though its effects on public life are insidious. Studying the 2014 killing of a journalist, we identify modes for the production of everyday impunity in Myanmar that emerge from earlier periods of unmediated military rule but that today are coming to resemble practices in neighbouring countries. Accounts from Bangladesh and Thailand reveal how impunity can persist in new political conditions, producing insecurity and hampering efforts for more inclusive forms of government. We close by urging scholars to remain attentive to their responsibilities in the face of impunity, calling on them not to participate in projects that have the effect of concealing violent crime by state officers, and denying victims justice." (Abstract)
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"For journalists promoting the free flow of information in repressive or restrictive media environments, the issue of financial sustainability is complex. Both media in exile (out-of-country news outlets feeding independent information into the country of origin) and news outlets in restrictive news
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environments (in-country providing counter-information) exist in flawed market situations and often rely on grant funding. This is the first academic study of the revenue streams of these media, providing scarce empirical data and a typology of funding structures of these media. This article examines three main revenue categories: grant funding, earned income and donations. The major factors influencing revenue streams compared to online media start-ups in open markets are discussed. The article finds significant barriers to revenue creation and identifies the need for alternative approaches, particularly partnerships, to promote economic resilience for media under threat." (Abstract)
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"This paper critically assesses the ethical challenges not-for-profit oppositional news outlets face when generating revenues. Both media in exile (out-of-country news outlets feeding independent information into the country of origin) and those in restrictive environments (in-country providing coun
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ter-information) often rely on media development funding to survive. Yet they are increasingly expected to diversify revenue as they wean themselves off grant dependency. As a result, tension arises between the necessities to generate revenues while continuing journalism in some of the most challenging environments globally. Building on empirical data, the author reflects on the ethical implications of three main revenue categories being used: grant funding, commercial revenues and donations. The paper finds oppositional news organisations are faced with a unique set of pragmatic challenges that prompts an ethical value set which oscillates between entrenched dependence on grant funding, commercial reluctance and commercial reconciliation." (Abstract)
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"The three case studies depict a range of repressive efforts that are calibrated to achieve particular ends. Sometimes, the authorities choose to co-opt independent voices. In other instances, the regime may create new government-backed versions of media initiatives or civic organizations which mimi
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c the form but not the substance of their authentic counterparts. Some techniques emphasize regulatory controls, while others utilize economic or financial pressure. All three regimes rely on broadly worded laws to punish critics and encourage self-censorship. State-run media remain dominant sources of information for most of the population in each country, and are used by the authorities as a weapon to tarnish and subvert the work of civil society activists and independent journalists." (Introduction, page 8)
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"Egypt’s plummeting press freedom is in part a result of the many ways in which the state can put pressure on independent media under Egyptian law. While the January 2014 constitution contains clear protections for the media (including, under Article 71, bans on censorship and surveillance), many
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of the oppressive laws imposed under Mubarak remain in place. These include provisions against defamation, blasphemy, and promotion of extremism, and the list is growing longer. One pending draft law prohibits publication of information pertaining to the armed forces without permission, and violators would be subject to stiff new criminal penalties. Another draft law would criminalize publication of information that contradicts the government line in terrorism matters. In many cases, these repressive laws are backed up by violence. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) conservatively estimates that 10 journalists have been killed in connection with their work since 2011, and reports that a record number of journalists are sitting in Egyptian jails. Egypt has more than five hundred newspapers, magazines, journals, and other publications. While many of these titles are owned by the Egyptian state, many others are privately owned. Most publications struggle financially; the country’s economic collapse has forced both state and private newspapers to implement deep budget cuts, though as of 2014, no major news outlet was forced to close its doors. In addition to their lack of resources, independent news organizations suffer from a lack of advocates. Organizations charged with representing journalists’ interests before the government, such as the Egyptian Journalist Syndicate, are reliant on state funding and have consequently proven to be ineffective guardians of press freedom." (Overview, page 2)
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"Wie verändert sich Journalismus in autoritären Regimen angesichts technischer, wirtschaftlicher und politischer Entwicklungen? Inwieweit können Medienakteure Wandel anstoßen? Mit welchen Mitteln versucht das Regime, steuernd einzugreifen? Judith Pies beantwortet diese Fragen anhand einer detail
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lierten Beobachtung des Journalismus in Jordanien. Sie beschreibt die Entwicklung professioneller Normen von 1989 bis 2007, analysiert die dahinter stehenden Akteure und bewertet ihre Relevanz für die journalistische Arbeit." (Klappentext)
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"Das Material für die nordkoreanische Literatur schöpft sich zum allergrößten Teil aus Kim Il Sungs bewaffnetem Revolutionskampf gegen Japan. Schriftsteller und Künstler lassen die Schauplätze der antijapanischen Revolution wiederauferstehen und deren Geist wiederaufleben [...] Dabei hat der I
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nhalt der Literatur - wie auch der Musik und der Kunst - stets Priorität. Die künstlerische Gestaltung ist sekundär. Abstraktion, Phantasie oder Imagination sind nicht möglich. Literatur wird nur dann geschätzt, wenn sie einen gesellschaftlichen Beitrag leistet und im Einklang mit der Parteipolitik steht." (Fazit, Seite 619)
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"The Story of an Uprising examines the political and media dynamic in pre-and post-revolution Egypt and what it could mean for the country's democratic transition. We follow events through the period leading up to the 2011 revolution, eighteen days of uprising, military rule, an elected president's
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year in office, and his ouster by the military. Activism has expanded freedoms of expression only to see those spaces contract with the resurrection of the police state. And with sharpening political divisions, the facts have become amorphous as ideological trends cling to their own narratives of truth." (Back cover)
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"In order to offer a more nuanced account of the relationship between online media and politics, this article proposes a theoretical framework that pays attention to discursive struggles, identifies strategies to contest hegemonic discourses, and employs a broadened notion of politics, referred to a
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s minimal politics. The framework is then used to analyze a corpus of Weibo (microblog) posts published by the charity organization, Love Save Pneumoconiosis (LSP). LSP activists use Weibo to campaign for medical treatment for workers with pneumoconiosis, and the article identifies two strategies of contestation in LSP activists' online activism. First, LSP activists articulate alternative discourses that challenge the hegemony of official discourses. Second, LSP activists' discourses are polyphonic expressions that legitimize the organization's work, while subtly politicizing the problem of pneumoconiosis. The strategies of contestation used by LSP activists exemplify how political contestation is possible in repressive contexts and illustrate the need to refine the theories used to study the political impact of online media." (Abstract)
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"Observing the emergence of public service broadcasting on the eve of colonialism in Botswana (early 60s to early 2000s), the central thesis of the article is that the roots of control of the media in contemporary Botswana can be traced to British anxieties about the possibility of a nationalist rev
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olution in the protectorate, following political trends of the anti-apartheid black nationalist movements in neighbouring South Africa. To understand the continuing deep-seated fear of letting go of state ownership of particularly Radio Botswana, the Botswana Daily News and Botswana Television (BTV) is to understand the fragility of Africa's postcolonial nation states, and thus its bureaucracies. Common belief has it that because Botswana is ethnically homogenous, it therefore experiences very little threat to its nation-building project, the truth is that stifling debate has been an important function of government control of the media. Even with the advent of social media platforms and their unprecedented influence in African politics (as in the Arab Spring), in Africa broadcasting will remain a vehicle for mobilising power and states seem intent on maintaining that control for the foreseeable future." (Abstract)
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"This article seeks to highlight how the media – especially radio – have always been used in Zimbabwe to consolidate the power of the government. This invariably led to oppositional media emerging from outside the country, giving the populace access to alternative discourses from those churned o
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ut by state media. The response to the alternative media run by blacks led the Southern Rhodesian and Rhodesian regimes to come up with repressive legislation that criminalised these media. After independence the state media embarked on consolidating the status quo and eliminating some sectors of the community from coverage – a repeat of the past. Legislation inherited from Rhodesia continued to be used in independent Zimbabwe, where the criminalisation of alternative voices and limitations in access to alternative media are predominant. Such a scenario reveals that there have been three waves of media repression in Zimbabwe, from Southern Rhodesia to Rhodesia and then to independent Zimbabwe, to deny the media their independence." (Abstract)
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