"In this contribution, using a case-study approach, we focus on the assassination of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée and explore the impact and consequences that it had on the community of investigative journalists in Slovakia. By conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with top investigative
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journalists (N = 12), we seek to answer two questions: How have they coped with the murder of their colleague? And, how has this incident changed their everyday journalistic practices and routines when it comes to achieving and maintaining safety? We identified 12 coping actions which, based on their function, were organised into five higher order families of coping: emotional purging; sharing and support seeking; avoidance and displacement; defiance and defence; and spreading the legacy and giving meaning to the tragedy. Regarding safety and security practices, the journalists claim that their approach has fundamentally changed. A variety of measures to stay safe, both online and offline, were adopted both on the organisational and on the individual level. However, many of these measures are not used consistently, mostly because they are not deemed necessary when covering non-sensitive topics, but also because of their impracticality in everyday journalistic work, and sceptical and fatalistic approach of the journalists to safety." (Abstract)
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"The commentary highlights the analysis of an international organizations’ technocrat in charge of implementing multilateral policy designed to increase the safety of journalists by preventing, protecting, and prosecuting crimes against them. Being UNESCO the leading coordinating UN agency in the
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implementation of these policies, the lessons learnt from the first decade of the implementation of the UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity are the crosscutting element of this commentary, particularly aiming to suggest areas of research that could further support evidence-based policymaking." (Abstract)
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"The safety of journalists is one of the most formidable challenges for press freedom and democracy around the world. The problem is the result of the juxtaposition of various forms of violence that break journalists’ sense of security and autonomy – the ability to control and decide the paramet
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ers of their work. Threats to safety drive journalists to self-censorship and to use extreme caution. Here I propose that the problem of journalists’ safety is worse and more complex today than in the recent past. This explains why the problem has received growing attention globally, and why it is hard to find solutions. A growing academic and grey literature continues to demonstrate that violence is a sprawling problem, and the challenges for implementing effective, sustainable solutions to confront a multidimensional problem, with local and national particularities. The articles in this issue provide further insights for understanding threats to safety and debating solutions." (Abstract)
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"This guide aims to encourage civil society and community organizations, activists and individuals to engage with the United Nations' (UN) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism on freedom of expression, safety of journalists and access to information issues. The guide explains why it is importan
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t to focus on freedom of expression in the UPR, followed by an overview of the UPR mechanism; a brief introduction to freedom of expression; and practical guidance on civil society engagement with the UPR. It also provides a set of resources for further information on the topics addressed. These guidelines build upon a joint Amnesty-UNESCO survey of more than 70 civil society respondents from different regions; a series of consultation webinars held between March and June 2022; and comprehensive interviews with civil society organizations from different regions." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Along the first lockdown of the world because of covid 19 pandemic, the professional media regained their monopoly of reliable information linked to the health crisis of all kinds: political, social and economic thanks to the journalism of quality. Journalists were on the front lines to ensure the
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necessary and reliable information for their audiences during the unprecedent global pandemic crisis. The public was in need of exact news and this was assured by the quality journalism only in field and online. Professional journalists were in the frontline but this had its cost. This paper deals with the issue of the safety of journalists in the practice of their profession during the 2020 crisis, in several countries. Thematic analysis is applied to examine the challenges, risks and fears of journalists during that time through individual and collective experiences of journalists, testified, published in media articles or expressed on professional forums around the world. In some countries the journalism was considered as "a public good" and so media organizations have taken the necessary measures to ensure a safe functioning during lockdown periods but political power has stigmatized journalists and puts more pressure on them than in normal times. There have been even more restrictions on access to official information and several cases of journalist's imprisonment and harassment are reported. The data analysis show evidence of lack of physical, psychological, financial and digital security protection of journalists in several areas of the world. The pandemic influenced to worsen the basic conditions for a quality journalism to live. The world should figure out how to do the necessary in order to save the journalism, this irreplaceable public good." (Abstract)
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"This study aims to fill the gap of the practical impediments for journalists properly doing their work during the COVID-19 pandemic over a single country. It is achieved by mapping the situational threats faced by the press in Portugal, as one of the best countries that grant media a free environme
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nt to work, which illustrates the challenges faced by media in established democracies. Drawing on the analysis of 34 episodes reported by national and international monitoring bodies over twenty months since the onset of the coronavirus crisis in the country, it concludes that economic threats alongside limitations in accessing information prevailed to the detriment of verbal and physical attacks or smear campaigns and online harassment. Apart from the nuance of the far-right hostility towards the press due to the health restrictions during campaign reporting as a new type of threat manifestation, the remaining threats experienced by the Portuguese media accelerated or aggravated previous trends." (Abstract)
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"Mob censorship, which “expresses the will of ordinary citizens to exert power over journalists through discursive violence” is traditionally considered a grassroots phenomenon. However, within technically mediated systems, who is behind the mob is sometimes unclear. We therefore ask how the tec
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hnical affordances of the Internet and telecommunications networks complicate the identification of attackers and their motivations and multiply the forms of retaliation that attackers level against journalists. We conducted 18 semistructured interviews with seven current or former journalists, as well as 11 professionals with experience defending news organizations, including security specialists, press freedom advocates, and newsroom infrastructure support staff. Through a constructivist grounded theory approach and in conversation with Lewis and Westlund’s (2015) 4A framework, we found that journalists and those defending news organizations do not reliably identify sources and motivations behind attacks, which may be grassroots in nature but may also be instigated by corporate or government actors. Journalists nonetheless infer attribution and motivation from the context surrounding attacks. Systemic issues related to the lack of diversity, ongoing financial constraints, and journalistic norms of engagement, alongside a lack of internal and platform support, exacerbate repercussions from these attacks and harm journalism’s role in a democracy." (Abstract)
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"The purpose of this study is to assess the threats and supporting mechanisms present in the Georgian media environment in 2022. Observation of the media environment, similar to the previous year’s research, was based on the evaluation of the participants involved in the research and further compa
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rative analysis." (Abstract)
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"These UNESCO guidelines aim to provide practical support to National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) on the use of the UPR process to improve freedom of opinion and expression, safety of journalists, and access to information and to strengthen their capacity to engage with the process in all its
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stages." (About, page 1)
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"These recommendations are targeted towards individuals working with sensitive sources on high-level projects that uncover government or corporate misdeeds. We have drafted a few additional steps you should keep in mind if you will be communicating with sensitive sources. Following the below steps w
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ill make it much harder for a dedicated adversary to figure out who your sources are." (Publisher description)
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"This report seeks to serve two purposes. The first is to research and document the state of media freedom and safety of journalists in Africa and to provide specific and evidence-based recommendations to guide policy makers, media development organisations and other media freedom and human rights a
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ctors to address identified gaps that undermine the safety of journalists and media freedom in Africa. Secondly, the report seeks to reinforce the safety of journalists and enhance legal and institutional frameworks by providing recommendations to support the implementation of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists (UNPoA) and the Issue of Impunity" (Introduction, page 6)
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"With 33 journalists killed since the beginning of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidential term in December 2018, Mexico heads the list of the most violent countries for journalists in Latin America—and that of countries not at war. While journalist organizations demand a meaningful protect
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ion apparatus to safeguard their physical safety, official corruption, and criminal impunity continue to escalate the pressures to which media staff are exposed, especially in Mexican states where cartels and criminal groups have the largest footprint. This study aims to precisely identify the pressures, both internal and external, facing journalists who report on organized crime in Mexico. To do this, we drew from the Hierarchy of Influences Model, and interviewed 22 Mexican journalists who work on the organized crime beat in the country’s capital and in the most violent states in the Republic. The results suggest that the most influential forces they face are associated with the organizational level (such as editorial line or institutional censorship), and the extramedia level (e.g., anti-press violence from cartels/authorities, and government advertising contracts)." (Abstract)
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"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
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ecovered from horrors of the stated war when unfortunately, the episode of the September 11, 2001, provoked another war in the area, framed as “war against terrorism”. The said war prompted a wave of religious extremism and radicalism in the region. Tactically, the killing of Osama Bin Laden in 2011brought the war on terror to its ultimate end but its after effects is still seriously hurting Pakistan. This state of affairs paved way for the emergence of war reporting in Pakistan. By now, dozens of journalists have been killed during performing their professional duties. This paper is an effort to explore the issues of religious extremism and radicalism in Pakistan and associated threats for the journalists engaged in reporting the same. The study is quantitative in nature and makes use of a questionnaire for data collection. The study found that lack of safety protocol such as deficient safety gadgets; training deficiency; and rush to break news endanger war reporter’s lives." (Abstract)
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"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
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afety tool development teams ("tool teams") to better understand their vulnerable users, respond to urgent security and privacy threats, and evaluate their impact. BASICS set out to address the unique challenges faced by tool teams in order to improve the protection of the users of these tools. Vulnerable populations, such as human rights defenders and marginalized groups, count on independently-developed open source digital safety tools not only to provide safety and censorship circumvention, but also to avoid reliance on cloud-based services which can be censored or hacked, and to protect themselves from costly licensing issues when using commercial tools. Many of the most popular and most critical open source digital security tools are maintained and updated by "tool teams" rather than businesses or organizations. These ad-hoc groups have little if any institutional capacity, are often under-resourced, and have limited insight into the specific needs of at-risk users." (Publisher description).
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"Freedom of speech and freedom of the press is generally attributed to an independent society where the basic rights of citizens are ensured. Balochistan, the western and resources rich province of Pakistan with its huge geopolitical importance has been under a strong wave of terrorism for the last
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two decades. This menace of terrorism has severely affected citizens of the province including media workers.
Design/Methodology/Approach: This research endeavor is an attempt to explore the impact of terrorism on the performance of media professionals in Balochistan. The study is based on the Hierarchy of Influence model which provides ground to explore the influence of terrorism. In this quantitative study, the researchers employing the systematic sampling technique have selected 50 media professionals out of 194 registered journalists of five press clubs: Quetta, Chaman, Noshki, Mastung, and Loralai.
Findings: The survey findings show that terrorism has badly affected the quality of their reporting. The study also reveals that objective journalism is hard to follow in the province by journalists as they are always threatened not only by terrorists but also by the law enforcement agencies to mold the reports in their favor.
Implications/Originality/Value The findings also indicate that terrorism has also affected journalists’ personal lives." (Abstract)
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"Comprising several interviews with women journalists both inside and outside of Afghanistan, the report highlights the threats to life and livelihood imposed by the new regime. As the Taliban imposes new restrictions on the media, including a dress code on women journalists, there is continued resi
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stance, with women journalists determined to continue their work and tell the world their stories. According to UNHCR estimates, as of November 2021, 3.4 million people in Afghanistan have been uprooted by conflict, with a large majority being women and children. In September, a group of UN human rights experts identified Afghan journalists and media workers, particularly women, at heightened risk and called on all States to provide urgent protection to those seeking safety abroad." (https://www.ifj.org)
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"Bulgarian journalists are under pressure. Although the country has been a member of the EU for 13 years and the legislation on freedom of speech corresponds to Western practices, the country ranks 111th in the annual Freedom of Speech Index. While the cases of work-related physical violence against
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journalists are rare, the cases of direct political pressure are increasing. The unification of ownership into large media cartels and the lack of transparency in the movement of financial flows from the state to certain media are among the main factors affecting the freedom of speech. The analysis of publications covering six cases of physical and verbal aggression on the websites of the five most visited online media in Bulgaria outlines the scheme for inducing self-censorship and the transition from active to passive news coverage within a short period of time. The survey, conducted with students in journalism and professional journalists, aims to show their experience with aggression, as well as to identify the forms of pressure they face on a daily basis." (Abstract)
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"This research aims to examine how sexism and gender discrimination impacts women journalists in Pakistan. The International Federation of Journalists (2018-19) ranks Pakistan as the fourth most dangerous country for journalists. The Coalition for Women in Journalism declares Pakistan as the sixth-w
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orst for female journalists (2019). In 2018, the Global Gender Gap Report highlighted Pakistan as second from bottom, ranking it 148 out of 149 countries. Given these numbers, the country is an ominous space for women in news media. This study collects the data from women journalists working in the three largest cities of Pakistan, that is, Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. The aim is to investigate the issues faced by female journalists due to discrimination at the workplace including glass ceiling, pay gap, and lack of female leadership. Following the mixed-method approach, around 102 women journalists were surveyed, and 10 were interviewed. Findings indicate the rampant existence of sexism in Pakistani media and its detrimental effects on the growth of a gender-balanced news media industry." (Abstract)
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"As a consequence of the endemic anti-press violence, Mexican journalists work under dangerous conditions. The constant assaults have eroded the practice of free journalism and thus, the people's right to know. Drawing on a set of semi-structured interviews with news workers from the most violent st
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ates across the country, this study emphasises that this phenomenon has a threefold impact at the individual, organisational, and societal levels. That is, those attacks affect the victims, the newsrooms they work for, and society. The findings also point that journalists throughout the nation share similar perceptions regarding these implications, because there is a generalised risk that they have to constantly face." (Abstract)
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"Journalists, across the world, are ever more at risk of surveillance from state and non-state antagonists. However, to work safely in a monitored environment is a substantial challenge for journalists. In such regimes, journalists and media organizations are often prone to attacks by the state auth
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orities. Surveillance, no matter real or implied, the presence of state panopticon power is felt strongly by the journalists, especially in competitive authoritarian countries like Pakistan. While international organizations monitoring media freedom and journalists’ protection do regularly highlight the increasing surveillance of Pakistani journalists, it is imperative to investigate the way they experience it in their real lives and its implications for them. Thus, informed by the theoretical approaches of panopticism, post-panopticism and competitive authoritarianism, this study aims to address the journalists’ lived experiences of surveillance and its impacts on their professional and personal lives in Pakistan. To accomplish these aims, this study uses the qualitative methods of document review and in-depth interviews, and offers a thematic analysis of the gathered data." (Abstract)
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