"The Internet is a modern Pandora's Box which has exceptionally altered the way we disseminate and receive information messages, particularly news. Despite technological innovations being the apex of our history, it is undeniable that they pose new challenges and threats to a different degree. Hence
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, this study examined the risks and challenges faced by the Malaysian media professionals in this new age and how technological developments had impacted their work. Situated within the framework of the technological determinism theory, this study employed a qualitative semi-structured interview with thirteen (13) Malaysian journalists. This study found several challenges related to the journalists' safety and their professionalism. Media professionals, such as journalists and editors, often caught in a paradoxical and risky situations, which challenge the process of news production and deliverance ethically and legally. Journalists, who participated in this study, were pressured to produce more story ideas and deliver news assignments with shorter deadlines. This not only impacted the online news quality but also the credibility and transparency of the news organization." (Abstract)
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"The report of last 12 months regarding journalists safety. We received from Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the fourth report to fight Impunity for the last 12 months which is made by the Iraqi national Committee of Safety of Journalists and issue of Impunity, as responding to the UNESCO’s request upo
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n the guideline that p. [...] MoJ endorsed the UNESCO’s MoI, National Starting the implementation of the project to esatablish the hotlines to the journalists, project of safety of journalists at Committee of training and live radio program in the MoJ radio station. [...]" (Abstract)
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"This chapter interrogates long-established and wide-sprung threats to media freedom and journalists' safety in Nigeria. The study used semi-structured interviews to explore field and newsroom experiences. The findings revealed the types of threats to media freedom and journalists' safety, non-exist
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ing safety frameworks, mitigation and protection measures, and recommendations on how to protect media organisations and journalists from threats. Consequently, the participants clamoured for constitutional provisions to protect journalists from threats; enforcement of existing and additional constitutional provisions and laws to deter violations against media freedom; establishing and empowering institutions to certify journalists; instituting policies for routine editorial staff training on conflict, safety, and sensitive reporting; and reviewing the NUJ Constitution to address contemporary media and journalism practices and issues, among others." (Abstract)
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"Journalists have long been the targets of both physical and cyber-attacks from well-resourced adversaries. Internet of Things (IoT) devices are arguably a new avenue of threat towards journalists through both targeted and generalised cyber-physical exploitation. This study comprises three parts: Fi
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rst, we interviewed 11 journalists and surveyed 5 further journalists, to determine the extent to which journalists perceive threats through the IoT, particularly via consumer IoT devices. Second, we surveyed 34 cyber security experts to establish if and how lay-people can combat IoT threats. Third, we compared these findings to assess journalists' knowledge of threats, and whether their protective mechanisms would be effective against experts' depictions and predictions of IoT threats. Our results indicate that journalists generally are unaware of IoT-related risks and are not adequately protecting themselves; this considers cases where they possess IoT devices, or where they enter IoT-enabled environments (e.g., at work or home). Expert recommendations spanned both immediate and long-term mitigation methods, including practical actions that are technical and socio-political in nature. However, all proposed individual mitigation methods are likely to be short-term solutions, with 26 of 34 (76.5%) of cyber security experts responding that within the next five years it will not be possible for the public to opt-out of interaction with the IoT." (Abstract)
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"This International Media Support report explores criminal justice and human rights mechanisms to protect journalists, media workers and human rights advocates in an effort to combat impunity in The Gambia. It is the culmination of an innovative approach to hold perpetrators of attacks, killings and
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disappearances of those exercising their right to free expression to account and accentuates the importance of robust, collaborative support to protect journalists and the commitment to end impunity. The heart of this report recognizes that responding to threats and attacks against journalists means being prepared to scrutinize investigations and the laws that govern them." (Back cover)
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"This study seeks to investigate different types of threats which affect the journalists' safety in Egypt and how do they manage their work in the presence of the diverse threats. The study analyzes the Egyptian legislative framework in order to explain whether it protects media freedom and journali
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sts or it needs further reforms. To address the research objective in detail, the study also incorporates the feedback of 45 Egyptian journalists belonging to government's partisan and private media organizations." (Abstract)
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"The Anglo-American intelligence agencies' use of journalists as spies or propagandists and the practice of providing intelligence agents in the field with journalistic cover have been a source of controversy for many decades. This article examines the extent to which these covert practices have tak
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en place and whether they have put journalists' lives in danger. This article, drawing on various methodologies, examines a number of cases where the arrest, murder or kidnap of journalists was justified on the grounds that the journalist was a 'spy'. This has been followed through with research, using a range of sources, that shows there have been many occasions when the distinction between spies and journalists has been opaque. The article concludes that widespread use of journalistic cover by spies has put lives in danger, but that the extent is unquantifiable." (Abstract)
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"Mexico is among the most violent countries for journalism, with more than 100 journalists killed in the past two decades. Behind these murders, which have largely gone unpunished, are phenomena such as organized crime and corruption, as well as a lack of state presence in some regions. In this stud
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y, we focus on analysis of a relevant topic in the contemporary news agenda, namely journalistic coverage of organized crime. For this, we interviewed almost two dozen Mexican journalists who work in Mexico’s main media outlets. Through journalists’ responses, we observe the normalization of violence in their everyday work. Although the journalists interviewed recognize that they do not have, in general, specific knowledge of this type of coverage, their experience directs them to develop security protocols, including use of their media outlets’ physical infrastructure and strategic use of social networks and the Internet." (Abstract)
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"This study investigates factors that dampens the Indonesian journalists' freedom and safety in the Post-Soeharto's New Order. To address this research objective, relevant journal articles have been scrutinized. And the in-depth interview data have been derived from the interviews of a former member
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of the Indonesian Press Council and four journalists who served four prominent Indonesian mainstream media including TEMPO, the Jakarta Post, Metro TV and CNN Indonesia. These data have been analysed using the qualitative and thematic analysis." (Abstract)
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"Despite the growing scholarship on investigative journalism in Latin America, very few studies have addressed collaboration across newsrooms in the region. By analyzing the responses of 251 journalists who work for investigative units in Latin American news outlets, this study explores a) the reaso
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ns why Latin American journalists are increasingly seeking to participate in national and transnational collaborative enterprises, b) the challenges they identify, and c) the role digital technologies are playing in this trend of transnational collaboration. Using mixed methods, we found that collaborations occur to enhance the impact of investigative projects, to reach larger audiences, and to achieve a big-picture coverage. We also found that safety is an important motivation to work in conjunction with other newsrooms—by collaborating, journalists are able to strengthen security measures and challenge censorship. Yet, coordinating teams—especially at the transnational level—remains the biggest challenge to overcome. Digital technologies are significantly related to reporters’ likelihood of collaborating, but these technologies require other reporting skills to be useful for investigative journalism. Implications for research and practice are discussed." (Abstract)
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"Drawing from 93 semi-structured, in-person interviews with journalists from 23 states, this article analyzes the relation between trust and risk perception in Mexican journalism. It focuses on how Mexican journalists perceive and experience public trust placed in them as social actors, and how it i
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nfluences their willingness or reluctance to assume the risks associated with reporting on corruption and drug-trafficking in a country marked by anti-press violence. The findings challenge previous studies as they show that journalists from all regions of the country –even in the so-called safe states– are fearful, even when they have not been victims of threats, beatings or kidnappings. Also, it explains that the connection between institutions and journalism makes news workers feel unprotected and unaccompanied. As a result, they accept self-censorship and even express a willingness to resign. Thus, this article surpasses the social, spatial and temporal delimitations of risk, by arguing that distrust in journalists increases the dangers they face." (Abstract)
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"Journalism has always been an unsafe practice in modern Turkey. However, ties between the political system and democracy have been severed by the recent witch-hunt following the most recent failed coup, in 2016, and the subsequent societal collapse triggered by the administration of the state of em
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ergency. In fact, mass and commercial journalism culture, whose foundations were built upon the post- World War II efforts to create a democratization trend and the transition to the multi-party system, were never strong enough to generate a sustainable liberal-pluralist set of media norms as in the West. Instead, a media system that serves the needs of political and economic power elites was both established and entrenched (Adakl*, 2006; Kaya, 2009)." (Abstract)
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"The trend in international newsgathering is to greater reliance on local journalists and fixers to provide crucial information to a global audience. At the same time, these local journalists are themselves becoming targets of violence. Increasingly, local journalists are being killed in the line of
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fire. Their deaths create stress for their colleagues, families and communities. It remains a challenge to discern areas in which the global community can provide support to journalists in these circumstances. As long as we continue to rely on fixers and local journalists for news and information from hot spots around the world, we must also provide them with adequate support to mitigate risk, including to their mental health. Local journalists, such as those in the Central African Republic, are one of the most likely groups of journalists to experience psychological trauma, thanks to the implicit risks of their work, combined with public pressure to provide news from these situations. What support can be provided to these journalists and how can it best meet the specific needs of such a community? Can we promote resiliency? The first step is to acknowledge the dearth of relevant research on mental health and psychosocial support for local journalists in conflict or emergency settings. There is a need for research on the kinds of trauma (and resilience) that journalists experience and their causes, including impacts on the individual and colleagues and impacts on the work […] Second, "little has been done to develop treatments based on local coping styles, culture-specific idioms of distress, and culturally appropriate helping methods" (de Jong 2017, 209) […] Third, any training efforts of journalists should be accompanied with mental health and psychosocial support […] Finally, the United Nations has adopted the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity This may at least give some wider symbolic support to journalists who are victims of traumatic attacks. Ultimately, there must be a recognition that the mental health of the journalist can have an impact on their reporting - something that is particularly critical in conflict environments." (Conclusion)
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"The News Organizations Safety Self-Assessment provides a tool for news outlets to review and improve safety practices and protocols that affect the newsroom and journalists out in the field. The Self-Assessment should help news organizations to identify and better understand their own weaknesses an
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d strengths in relation to the security of all the individuals working for them who are exposed to danger, including freelancers. The Self-Assessment should prompt a constructive internal conversation around best practices and encourage practical and effective ways to advance these internally. The suggested Self-Assessment can be used as a template, can be modified and adapted according to the nature of the news organization, or used to inform mechanisms already in place." (Introduction)
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"95 per cent of journalists killed in armed conflict are locally based journalists. While there has been increasing focus on the physical and digital safety issues these journalists face, there has been less attention towards the need for psychosocial support. Addressing psychosocial needs of local
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journalists must become a higher priority to better provide for their well-being as they are impacted by psychologically traumatizing events happening around them. The context of local journalists in covering such events is very different from their international correspondent colleagues. This paper will discuss the cross-country lessons, as well as the challenges, surrounding psychosocial issues as part of the holistic theme of safety of journalists. Researchers have shown how journalists, particularly war correspondents, are affected by the work they do. But there has been little examination of the effects on local journalists or fixers for international media who live and work covering violence, conflicts or disasters that impact them directly. This paper will look at how trauma support considered mainstream in Western countries might be adapted for local journalists, examples of psychosocial support that have been used in different contexts such as the Middle East, Asia and Latin America and offer considerations in conducting further research into this area moving forward." (Abstract)
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"Every year, hundreds of human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and journalists and media workers are killed around the world – simply for doing their job. Hundreds more are threatened, sexually harassed, kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned or otherwise targeted. This briefing paper is the preli
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minary output of research undertaken in an effort to inform or inspire action among the media support, human rights and humanitarian sectors to address pressing safety and protection issues. The paper seeks not only to identify com¬monalities between these sectors, but to identify possible areas for future collaboration and cooperation to address issues of safety and impunity." (Publisher description)
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"This report assesses the question of how women in media are being targeted and how journalism is impacted by gender specific harassment and violence. It also looks at to what extent this issue is being effectively addressed on a national level and supported by the international community since the
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launch in 2012 of the UN Plan of Action for the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity. The study discusses the challenges and existing efforts to improve the safety and protection of women journalists in nine countries with a view to informing debate and actions by media owners and editors, policy makers, press freedom organisations and journalists." (Back cover)
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