"With particularly low internet penetration rates, intense state censorship and heavy Chinese investment, Pakistan presents elements of an authoritarian internet culture where surveillance is a barely-questioned norm, unless probed by civil society organizations or journalists. Social media giants s
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uch as Facebook and Twitter have come into minor clashes with the Pakistani government where enforcing content blockage/regulation is concerned. For example, the government in 2018 expanded the remit of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to allow the regulator to block various types of content.[1] Journalists have begun to self-censor out of threats to their lives. Nearly 88% of Pakistan’s journalists said that they selfcensored, according to a 2018 survey carried out by Media Matters for Democracy, a local NGO. China, with its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and One Belt One Road initiative, is exporting its regulatory model of surveillance to Pakistan, thus worsening the situation. A handful of digital human rights civil society organizations have sprung up over the past few years such as Media Matters for Democracy, Digital Rights Foundation and Bytes4All, all with the aim of fighting back against invasion of privacy, freedom of speech, and safety of journalists, and raising awareness about the issue of internet and human rights in Pakistan." (Page 4)
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"In many African countries, including Zimbabwe, journalists have been subjected to various policy regulations that have widely been criticised for making the practice of journalism difficult. Part of the reason has been the advent of competitive politics that have left the ruling regimes scrambling
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to limit freedoms and stopopposition onslaught on their power. One way the Zimbabwean government has limited freedom of expression has been through the introduction of the Interception of Communications Act, a surveillance regulation law that has had a chilling effect on the practice of journalism. This paper utilises Pierre Bourdieu’s journalistic field as theoretical lenses, focusing on the concepts of journalistic field to explore how journalists have been affected by the threats posed by this law in their daily newsgathering and production activities. The study is based on qualitative interviews with Zimbabwean journalists and civil society activists with an interest in the media, sampled from the private print media. The article argues that state surveillance has disrupted the journalistic field in the country by damaging the relationship between journalists and their sources, thus compromising one of the basic tenets of journalism. Journalists can no longer follow the widely held newsgathering routines as a result of state surveillance policies. Furthermore, investigative journalism, which was already under pressure from political influence, has been further eroded. We argue that Zimbabwe journalists need to develop reporting practices that expose surveillance and find creative ways to negotiate and resist surveillance." (Abstract)
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"At the heart of the challenges to democracy posed by digital media are three core problems: 1. Platform monopolies: two or three corporations control not only our means of communication, but also the content which is distributed, both of which are core aspects of our democracy. Whilst the market po
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wer and global mobility of these companies make it possible for them to avoid national regulatory measures, either by moving operations elsewhere or simply ignoring them; 2. Algorithmic opacity: algorithmic engines are using huge quantities of personal data to make ever more precise predictions about what we want to see and hear, and having ever increasing influence over what we think and do, with little transparency about how they work or accountability for their impact; and 3. Attention economy: the dominant business model of digital media prioritises the amplification of whatever content is best at grabbing our attention, while avoiding responsibility for the impact that content has on our collective wellbeing and our democracy. The negative impact is brutally clear from both the literature and the world around us." (Introduction, page 14)
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"This book explores the complex and contradictory relationships between communication and information technologies and social movements by drawing on different case studies from around the world. The contributions analyse how new communication and information technologies impact the way protests are
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carried out and controlled in the current information age. The authors focus on recent events that date from the Arab Spring onwards and pose questions regarding the future of protests, surveillance and digital landscapes." (Publisher description)
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"While the digital era has delivered unprecedented opportunities for big-data based investigative journalism—from the Snowden Files to the Panama Papers—it has also thrown up a host of new threats to the sustainability of journalism based on confidential sources. These include: mass and targeted
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surveillance; data retention regimes and the handover of data by third party intermediaries such as social media platforms, telecommunications companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs); national security and anti-terrorism overreach; attempts to ban encryption and online anonymity; and malicious digital attacks targeting journalists. If sources cannot securely connect with journalists, they risk exposure, with impacts including economic penalties through to extra-judicial killings. The effect of these threats to accountability journalism and public access to information is chilling, and it is leading to significant changes in the practice of investigative journalism dependent upon confidential sources and information on a global scale." (Abstract)
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"The information and media environment in North Korea continues to evolve quickly. This report demonstrates that the depth and diversity of information and media access channels have grown markedly since the release of A Quiet Opening in 2012. More North Koreans have greater access to a larger varie
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ty of media content and communication devices. However, it is equally clear the North Korean state is determined to regain control of how and what information its citizens access. Rather than attempting to recreate the information blockade and national sequestration of the Kim Il Sung era, the state’s recent technological innovations strongly suggest it is moving toward a new, but no less heavily controlled information environment. This is apparent when we examine current and emerging techniques for censorship, surveillance and integrity preservation across the network, device and human levels." (Conclusion)
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"This study, which covers 121 UNESCO Member States, represents a global benchmarking of journalistic source protection in the Digital Age. It focuses on developments during the period 2007-2015. The legal frameworks that support protection of journalistic sources, at international, regional and coun
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try levels, are under significant strain in 2015. They are increasingly at risk of erosion, restriction and compromise - a development that is seen to represent a direct challenge to the established universal human rights of freedom of expression and privacy, and one that especially may constitute a threat to the sustainability of investigative journalism. In many of the countries examined in this Study, it was found that legal source protection frameworks are being actually or potentially: overridden by national security and anti-terrorism legislation; undercut by surveillance – both mass and targeted; jeopardised by mandatory data retention policies and pressure applied to third party intermediaries - like ISPs, telcos, search engines, social media platforms - to release data which risks exposing sources; outdated when it comes to regulating the collection and use of digital data, such as whether information recorded without consent is admissible in a court case against either a journalist or a source; and whether digitally stored material gathered by journalistic actors is covered by existing source protection laws." (Executive summary)
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"Frente a la tendencia regional y global que lleva a gobiernos y a proveedores de servicio a acumular una cantidad cada vez mayor de información sobre sus usuarios, este estudio intenta una aproximación comparada a la manera en que las legislaciones de México, Brasil, Colombia, Perú, Argentina y
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Chile abordan la retención de datos y el registro de teléfonos móviles, de cara a sus obligaciones y compromisos internacionales en el marco interamericano, y en particular en relación a los proyectos legislativos que en Chile buscan realizar cambios al actual marco regulatorio de las telecomunicaciones." (Resumen)
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"This publication identifies at least 12 digital threats, including illegal or arbitrary digital surveillance, location tracking, and software and hardware exploits without the knowledge of the target. Further examples that are considered are: phishing, fake domain attacks, Man-in-the-Middle (MitM)
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attacks, and Denial of Service (DoS) [...] In examining cases worldwide, this publication serves as a resource for a range of actors. In a nutshell, it surveys the evolving threats, and assesses preventive, protective and pre-emptive measures. It shows that digital security for journalism encompasses, but also goes beyond, the technical dimension. This publication also gives an overview of actors and initiatives working to address digital safety, as well as identifying gaps in knowledge that call for awareness-raising." (UNESCO website)
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"The fundamental problem with cyber surveillance, even for the most well-intentioned governments, is that laws have not evolved with the technology. Governments must enforce the laws that exist and apply them to the modern age. And they should consider that just because technology makes surveillance
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possible doesn’t mean it makes it necessary or justifiable in all cases. The best one can hope for is international adoption of a set of standards, and the use of those standards by international monitoring organizations to apply pressure on authoritarian governments to meet them." (Conclusion)
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"The subject of this article is the issue of journalist-spies in the Bulgarian media before and after the fall of communism in 1989. The focus is on the perceptions of Bulgarian journalists on the role alleged secret service collaborators played, and continue to play, in the postcommunist society an
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d media landscape. Role perceptions are explored through semi-structured interviews with practicing journalists from the capital city, Sofia. The findings suggest that Bulgarian journalists continue to be concerned with, and affected by, the influence of former communist spies on the Bulgarian media, a controversy that has largely been ignored by media scholars." (Abstract)
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"Vom eigenen Staat auf Schritt und Tritt überwacht zu werden, ist eine Horrorvision für viele Menschen. Möglich wird dies auch durch den Spion in der Hosentasche. Smartphones kommunizieren ständig mit staatlichen Lauschern, ohne dass wir es wollen – und bemerken. Stefan Aust und Thomas Ammann
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erhellen die politischen Hintergründe und schildern, wie die Informationstechnologie aus den Denkfabriken der Militärs zum weltumspannenden Machtinstrument wurde. Längst tobt ein Krieg um Informationen zwischen Geheimdiensten, Staaten und Konzernen – um die Daten von uns allen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The internet has enabled an unprecedented ability to monitor and track people and information flows as highlighted in the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden about online surveillance carried out by the United States’ National Security Agency. The revelations have kicked off debates across the wor
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ld about the correct balance between citizen privacy and national security in the context of the internet. In the face of this shifting landscape it is critical for human rights activists to understand how internet surveillance works, and what privacy and anonymity really mean in a digital world." (Back cover)
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"This Global Information Society Watch tracks the state of communications surveillance in 57 countries across the world – countries as diverse as Hungary, India, Argentina, The Gambia, Lebanon and the United Kingdom. Each country report approaches the issue from a different perspective. Some analy
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se legal frameworks that allow surveillance, others the role of businesses in collecting data (including marketing data on children), the potential of biometrics to violate rights, or the privacy challenges when implementing a centralised universal health system. The perspectives from long-time internet activists on surveillance are also recorded. Using the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance as a starting point, eight thematic reports frame the key issues at stake. These include discussions on what we mean by digital surveillance, the implications for a human rights agenda on surveillance, the “Five Eyes” inter-government surveillance network led by the US, cyber security, and the role of intermediaries." (GIS website)
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