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Deepening the Response to Authoritarian Information Operations in Latin America

Iria Puyosa, Mariví Marín Vázquez, Adam Fivenson

Washington, DC: National Endowment for Democracy (NED) (2023), 29 pp.

"The essays in this report deepen our understanding of the escalating and evolving threats posed by global authoritarianism. While responses to authoritarian information manipulation have been robust in many ways across Latin America, much more can be done to counter it and enhance the quality of in ... more

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Professional Situation and Needs of Afghan Journalists in Exile: An Exploratory Study

Berlin: JX Fund (2023), 38 pp.

"Findings indicate that Afghan exiled journalists worldwide struggle to continue practicing their profession. Even among the few who still work in media, the vast majority depend on additional sources of income. This demonstrates a clear need for support, especially since many respondents aspire to ... more

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A Light That Cannot Be Extinguished: Exiled Journalism and Transnational Repression

Jessica White, Grady Vaughan, Yana Gorokhovskaia

Washington, DC: Freedom House (2023), 18 pp.

"1. Increasing attacks on independent media globally are forcing journalists to flee their home countries. Working from abroad, these reporters remain crucial sources of information about some of the world’s most authoritarian countries. But safety in exile is not guaranteed. 2. At least 26 govern ... more

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China's Discourse Power: Capabilities and Impact

Kenton Thibaut

Washington, DC: Atlantic Council (2023), 40 pp.

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Hong Kong Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 22 pp.

"In the global context of digital authoritarianism, Hong Kong may become an important reference for a region in which currently the legal groundwork is laid for what may be more stringent tools of oppression. We can witness a rationalisation and legalisation of this process, where any form of critic ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Myanmar Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 18 pp.

"By learning about both the repression and resistance sides of Myanmar’s Spring Revolution, it is evident that digital technology is playing a critical role in this revolution. The military is using every possible technology to repress people, inject fear into society and manipulate it. The revolu ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Kazakhstan Country Report

Sofya du Boulay

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 21 pp.

"This report focuses on the main trends in digital authoritarian technologies used in Kazakhstan from 2017 to 2022. It contextualises the repressive online mechanisms within the changing political landscape. The January 2022 protests tested the grounds of social and political liberties — the seemi ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: The Philippines Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 28 pp.

"Like any authoritarian regime, the Philippine government uses various forms of digital authoritarianism to its advantage. The aim is to win the propaganda war against its perceived enemies so that it can continue implementing policies that are often detrimental to the ordinary folk. While the two i ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Kyrgyzstan Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 24 pp.

"[...] The research has revealed that the incumbent Kyrgyz government is actively suppressing dissent by engaging in information manipulation, passing restrictive laws and attacking free media and investigative journalism. The Kyrgyz government has introduced new laws to regulate online activity, an ... d is proposing additional legislation on foreign agents to control and to limit the activity of NGOs and foreign media, and on mass media to gain greater control over bloggers and social media accounts with more than 5,000 followers. The government has been using the “Law on Protection from False Information,” also known as the fake news law, to silence its critics. This has included shutting down the website of Azattyk, a foreign-funded media outlet critical of the state, and detaining and censoring individuals who share or repost information critical of the government on social media. Similarly, investigative reporters in Kyrgyzstan have had to deal with multiple accusations, various attacks, or legal action taken against them. One of them, Temirov Bolot, was forced to leave Kyrgyzstan and move to Russia in November 2022. Furthermore, the research has examined how the Kyrgyz leadership is exploiting social media platforms to launch influence campaigns and boost the president’s popularity. Pages and groups supportive of Zhaparov on various social media platforms, including Instagram, Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp, have emerged with the aim of garnering backing for the president during critical moments, and are run by individuals associated with his informal network, while receiving funding from unknown pro-president groups or individuals. The support pages promote the current regime’s decisions and policies by creating pro-regime content (usually videos) that is disseminated through multiple social media platforms, while also commenting on contentious news items published by critical media channels. These videos are directed towards under-educated Kyrgyz-speaking people who tend to trust unverified sources, conveying unconfirmed and intentionally exaggerated information. Overall, the situation with media freedom and freedom of opinion in Kyrgyzstan is worsening and these developments are worrying because the country has been a champion of democratic reforms in the region since 1991." (Analysis and conclusion, page 21) more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Cameroon Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 22 pp.

"This research indicates that the government criminalises free speech by using a vague and broad definition of fake news, and clamps down on dissent and criticism, and that journalists who criticise the government are seen as enemies of the state — as in the case of the jailing of Kingsley Fomunyu ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Kenya Country Report

Chepkoech Rotich

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 21 pp.

"This report provides an overview of the most prolific instances of digital authoritarianism in Kenya. The report will debrief the most relevant actions and decisions taken by the Kenyan government in recent years that leverage the internet and technology in order to achieve certain political goals. ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Ecuador Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 22 pp.

"Under the government of Rafael Correa, punitive measures were used systematically against the privately-owned press, and there were even emblematic prosecution cases that were later dealt with by international courts such as the El Universo case. However, Fundamedios and Fundación Periodistas Sin ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: El Salvador Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 24 pp.

"This report analyses two major incidents: the disclosure that Pegasus spyware has been used against journalists from independent media outlets and representa tives of civil society, and Bukele’s legal advisor’s threats against two women journalists for not revealing anonymous sources included i ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Observatory Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 62 pp.

"Authoritarian practices are not strictly limited to authoritarian states; they are employed by regimes that span the political spectrum. The research approach argues for expanding the understanding of key authoritarian strategies to include persuasion alongside coercion and cooptation, which are id ... more

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The Unfreedom Monitor: Venezuela Country Report

Amsterdam: Global Voices Advox (2023), 23 pp.

"With the crackdown on radio, TV, and newspapers since 2007, the Venezuelan population is largely dependent on digital spaces: social media is generally the main source of information across the country, and digital media has taken over other types of press and completely changed the media ecosystem ... more

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Media and power in modern Iran: Mass communication, ideology, and the state

Emily L. Blout

London: Tauris (2023), x, 222 pp.

"Successive Iranian leaders have struggled to navigate the fraught political-cultural space of media in the Islamic Republic-skirting the line between embracing Western communications technologies and rejecting them, between condemning social networking sites as foreign treachery and promoting thems ... more

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Writing and Rewriting the Reich: Women Journalists in the Nazi and Post-War Press

Deborah Barton

Toronto et al.: University of Toronto Press (2023), xvi, 360 pp.

"This book tells the complex story of women journalists as both outsiders and insiders in the German press of the National Socialist and post-war years. From 1933 onward, Nazi press authorities valued female journalists as a means to influence the public through charm and subtlety rather than intimi ... more

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Journalistic practices in restrictive contexts: A sociological approach to the case of Iran

Banafsheh Ranji

London; New York: Routledge (2023), 131 pp.

"Based on fieldwork conducted in Iran, this book discusses how it is possible for journalism to exist and function in a restrictive context. The book brings together a range of structural (macro), organizational (meso), and individual (micro) processes to analyse journalistic practice in a political ... more

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China’s Media Propaganda in Africa: A Strategic Assessment

Joshua Eisenman

Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace (USIP) (2023), 23 pp.

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The Evolution of Self-Censorship in Hong Kong Online Journalism: Influences from Digitalization and the State

Alex Zhi-Xiong Koo

International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 29, issue 1 (2023), pp. 143-163

"Studies about media self-censorship typically focus on its mechanism in traditional newsroom settings. But how media self-censorship may evolve in online journalism has remained largely unexplored. Using Hong Kong as a case, I examine the digital evolution of media self-censorship in a unique non-d ... more