"The purpose of this report is to provide the first step towards a global overview of the weaponization of the law as a prominent threat to media freedom. In doing so, we offer a resource that can be used to empower those seeking to navigate the shifting legal environment and support those working t
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o protect the continued coverage of the world’s most sensitive and critical issues – including corruption, organized crime, and human rights. This is also the first report of its kind to bring together substantial insights into these global legal trends from two significant constituencies: journalists from around the world, and media freedom experts. The report draws on global research conducted through the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, alongside the contributions of dozens of leading media freedom experts and the firsthand experience of nearly 500 journalists from the Thomson Reuters Foundation network, to identify and examine eight key legal threats to the profession. It provides a critical springboard into further research that might map in more detail the scale, nature, and geographic spread of these threats – essential to identifying how best to counter them. Nearly 50% of journalists in the Foundation’s alumni network who responded to a survey said that they or their media organisation were facing legal threats, illustrating the sheer scale of this war on journalism. The physical, emotional and financial consequences are enormous for journalists who are continually facing the risk of going to jail, being bankrupted, or repeatedly being dragged into court. Allowed to spread unchecked, the weaponization of the law will continue to curtail media freedom by hampering coverage of critical public interest matters, undermining accountability, and eroding trust in journalism – with catastrophic effects on democracies and freedoms globally." (Executive summary, page 8)
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"[...] There is a need to expand the framework for press freedom defense to incorporate the notion of public interest. Linking press freedom and public interest allows for the protection of press freedom based not only on the individual right to free expression but also on the collective social bene
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fit derived from independent journalism. A public interest framework has the potential to unite the different sectors that are seeking to positively influence the global information space – groups engaged in free expression advocacy, the media development community, democratic governments and the tech platforms. Creating a global information system that serves the public interest is the best available articulation of their shared goals. Public interest represents a powerful social norm within journalism and is also a recognized regulatory framework often applied to media. But its meaning is contested and evolving. While the adoption of the public interest framework will not solve the global information crisis, it will more clearly define the goal, grounding the debate and making it more productive. Journalists themselves have much to contribute to the public dialogue precisely because public interests represent such a strong normative value within the profession. The best-suited institutions to represent the interests of journalists and ensure their perspective informs the policy discussion are journalism schools at leading universities, which should expand research and education related to the concept of public interest." (Executive summary)
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"When press freedom groups began a campaign against impunity, they set out to gain justice in individual cases of journalists murdered for their work. Did a global norm evolve in the process? Among the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, is notable for its ele
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gance and simplicity. It states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart informa-tion and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” It would seem elemental that this right cannot be exercised in practice when those who express critical views are systematically murdered with impunity. Yet between 1992 and 2020, 870 journalists were murdered in direct reprisal for their work. Each of these killings was more than a murder; it was an effective form of censorship that deprived whole societies of essential information and protected powerful figures from the scrutiny that would make them accountable to the people." (Abstract)
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"This book features pathbreaking analysis from journalists and academics of the changing nature and peril of media capture - how formerly independent institutions fall under the sway of governments, plutocrats, and corporations. Contributors including Emily Bell, Felix Salmon, Joshua Marshall,
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Joel Simon, and Nikki Usher analyze diverse cases of media capture worldwide, many drawn from firsthand experience. They examine the role played by new media companies and funders, showing how the confluence of the growth of big tech and falling revenues for legacy media has led to new forms of control. Contributions also shed light on how the rise of right-wing populists has catalyzed the crisis of global media. They also chart a way forward, exploring the growing need for a policy response and sustainable models for public-interest investigative journalism." (Publisher description)
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"This volume brings together leading experts from a variety of fields to critically evaluate the extent to which global norms on freedom of expression and information have been established and which actors and institutions have contributed to their diffusion. The contributors also consider ongoing a
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nd new challenges to these norms, from conflicts over hate speech and the rise of populism to authoritarian governments, as well as the profound disruption introduced by the internet. Together, these essays lay the groundwork for an international legal doctrine on global freedom of expression that considers issues such as access to government-held information, media diversity, and political speech." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing on his experience defending journalists on the front lines, Joel Simon calls for a global freedom-of-expression agenda. He proposes ten key priorities, including combating the murder of j
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ournalists, ending censorship, and a global free-expression charter to challenge the criminal and corrupt forces that seek to manipulate the world's news." (Publisher description)
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