"At least 91 cases of attacks and violations against media and its practitioners, including journalists, took place in Pakistan over the course of one year — between May 2019 and April 2020 — signifying a worryingly escalating climate of intimidation and harassment that is adversely affecting th
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e freedom of expression and access to information environment in the country, according to this research and analysis report by Freedom Network, an award-winning Pakistan-based media rights watchdog that tracks violations against journalists on an ongoing basis." (Executive summary)
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"This study analyzes the scholarship on the classification of war and peacemaking potential of media in the conflict-ridden milieu of Pakistan. Borrowing from peace studies and the existing journalistic practices in the country, the researchers present and empirically test a new model for evaluating
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conflict journalism in terms of its escalatory and de-escalatory trends. For this purpose, news stories telecasted in two leading TV channels (PTV and Geo News) relating to seven deadly conflicts were analyzed. We found support for our model—the higher the intensity of a conflict, the higher the escalatory trends in coverage. Patriotic and elite-controlled media produced more escalation as compared to conflict in which journalists were using relatively free media. Despite the dominance of escalatory coverage, we also found some traces of peace journalism in the reporting of conflicts. The study recommends that to promote peace journalism in Pakistan and elsewhere, the local context of a conflict and the journalistic environment should be studied. A mere replication of Western scholarship on peace journalism in non-Western settings would render it an impracticable ideal in real conflict scenarios." (Abstract)
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"Spotlight report on the state of public access to information in Canada, Indonesia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Ukraine prepared for the 2019 cycle of the Voluntary National Reviews and the 2019 UN High Level Political Forum." (Subtitle)
"Ecocriticism and environmental communication studies have for many years co-existed as parallel disciplines, occasionally crossing paths but typically operating in separate academic spheres. These fields are now rapidly converging, and this handbook aims to reinforce the common concerns and methodo
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logies of the sibling disciplines. The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication charts the history of the relationship between ecocriticism and environmental communication studies, while also highlighting key new paradigms in information studies, diverse examples of practical applications of environmental communication and textual analysis, and the patterns and challenges of environmental communication in non-Western societies. Contributors to this book include literary, film and religious studies scholars, communication studies specialists, environmental historians, practicing journalists, art critics, linguists, ethnographers, sociologists, literary theorists, and others, but all focus their discussions on key issues in textual representations of human-nature relationships and on the challenges and possibilities of environmental communication. The handbook is designed to map existing trends in both ecocriticism and environmental communication and to predict future directions." (Publisher description)
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"Digital media histories are part of a global network, and South Asia is a key nexus in shaping the trajectory of digital media in the twenty-first century. Digital platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and others are deeply embedded in the daily lives of millions of people around the world, shaping ho
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w people engage with others as kin, as citizens, and as consumers. Moving away from Anglo-American and strictly national frameworks, the essays in this book explore the intersections of local, national, regional, and global forces that shape contemporary digital culture(s) in regions like South Asia: the rise of digital and mobile media technologies, the ongoing transformation of established media industries, and emergent forms of digital media practice and use that are reconfiguring sociocultural, political, and economic terrains across the Indian subcontinent. From massive state-driven digital identity projects and YouTube censorship to Tinder and dating culture, from Twitter and primetime television to Facebook and political rumors, Global Digital Cultures focuses on enduring concerns of representation, identity, and power while grappling with algorithmic curation and data-driven processes of production, circulation, and consumption." (Publisher description)
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"This report describes and analyses how online propaganda against journalists across the world - through hate, harassment, threats and fabricated news – undermines independent reporting, sows doubt among the public and makes journalists, in particular female journalists, open for online attacks an
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d physical abuse to the detriment of freedom of expression and open, democratic societies. To stem the tidal wave of mostly anonymous online propaganda against journalists, in particularly female journalists across the world who are exposed to unacceptable amounts of online sexual abuse, Fojo Media Institute, the publisher of this report, plans to set up #journodefender, a global hub to monitor, investigate and take action against the-ends-justifies-the-means trolling with particular focus on assisting journalism in countries that are particularly badly affected." (Prologue)
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"The Media Ownership Monitor found that a high degree of concentration in ownership and audience share prevails in the media industry in Pakistan and a professionally weak regulatory system poses a threat to media pluralism and freedom of expression in the country." (http://Pakistan.mom-rsf.org/en)
"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 2018, South Asia was declared by the IFJ as the most deadly region in the world for media workers, which most brutally demonstrates the reality faced by far too many in the industry. Nowhere was this more acutely felt than Afghanistan with eight journalists and four other media workers killed, a
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nother eight threatened with death and 61 recorded violations on journalists attempting to do their job. The horrific targeted assassination of revered journalist and editor Shujaat Bukhari in Kashmir, India, in June 2018 sent shockwaves through the troubled region and beyond. Scores of journalists and even ordinary citizens turned out to mourn and shine a light on an important voice extinguished, a key voice of reason and advocate of peace in the protracted conflict. In Bangladesh, mass political demonstrations by students over road safety saw another brave advocate of freedom of expression, photojournalist Shahidul Alam targeted. Accused of spreading false and provocative statements in an interview with Al Jazeera, he was jailed for more than 100 days drawing global condemnation on the Bangladeshi government. Alam was one of 21 jailed or detained media workers in the region, on charges such as violation of digital security laws, sedition and even vague criminal determinations. Right now, Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida is also bravely fighting treason charges in the courts for his coverage of the Pakistani state’s patronage of militant groups, while being honoured internationally as a press freedom hero. Meanwhile Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan currently remains languishing in jail, charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for a story on the second anniversary of the death of a young Kashmiri militant. Many other journalists in the year were detained without charge for periods ranging from a few hours to months. All in an attempt to silence their critical voices. The period from May 2018 to April 2019, saw the mass haemorrhaging of journalist jobs in the region, most acutely in Pakistan." (Overview, page 5)
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"Local fixers are becoming increasingly important for international media due to escalating security threats to international journalists, budget cuts within international media organizations, and the disappearance of long-stay correspondents. Local fixers give local color and context to news storie
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s, but their work in conflict regions is extremely dangerous. Making things worse, fixers are at the bottom of the international correspondence totem pole. This paper approaches the situation from the perspective of fixers using qualitative in-depth interviews made in northwestern Pakistan, whereby we see fixers’ problems in a wider context of post-colonial relationships. The role of Western international journalists is discussed within a cultural context of hegemony, primarily drawing on theories of Edward Said and Antonio Gramsci." (Abstract)
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