Friday

29th Sep 2023

Opinion

On World Press Freedom Day, new threats to journalists surge

  • A recent survey of more than 900 women journalists in 125 countries found that 73 percent had experienced online violence (Photo: Marco Fieber)
Listen to article

Journalists have long been targeted for truth-telling; but the methods deployed to silence independent reporting have broadened.

Two sinister and distinct trends in harassment have emerged: the onslaught of online abuse targeting — in particular — women journalists, and the weaponisation of laws against media practitioners.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Both are driven by malign influencers desperate to control an ever-more valuable currency: the free flow of information. But increasingly it's the person rather than the profession that's under attack.

The figures are grim. UNESCO's recent global survey of more than 900 women journalists in 125 countries found that 73 percent had experienced online violence.

This abuse ranged from misogynistic harassment and digital security attacks to co-ordinated disinformation campaigns leveraging hate speech. A quarter of those journalists had received threats of physical violence, including rape and death threats.

Online abuse is not 'virtual' abuse. The impact of sustained and orchestrated digital hate campaigns on an individual's mental health, physical well-being, indeed their civil liberties, can be catastrophic, with discreditation, self-censorship and the permanent shutdown of independent reporting the latest casualties in the war on press freedom.

This is powerfully illustrated by the experiences of Indian journalist and Washington Post opinions writer Rana Ayyub, whose investigative reporting that implicated prime minister Modi's administration and ignited the ire of his supporters has led to years of persecution and a tidal wave of online violence — including death threats, racism, 'doxing' and misogyny — nearly 8.5 million tweets since 2019.

Meanwhile the BBC's specialist disinformation reporter Mariana Spring has publicly documented the misogynistic hate she receives online, triggered by her coverage of online conspiracies and fake news.

The ability to mobilise large-scale online attacks is amplified by the rise in news consumption on social media; around two-thirds of those consuming news globally now use social networks or messaging apps, according to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

The International Centre for Journalists says online violence has led to 30 percent of those targeted self-censoring on social media, with some leaving the profession for good.

Perpetrators of this harassment are acting in near total impunity. Left unchecked, critical reporting, a diverse representation of voices and the ability to interrogate authority is eradicated.

But these very outcomes are also fuelling the rise in the weaponisation of laws against journalists.

Afghanistan and Russia

'Fake news' and disinformation laws continue to be used as a smokescreen to crack down on press freedoms, as illustrated by the "11 Journalism Rules" imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan in September last year, which prohibits reporting that is not "coordinated" with the government's Media and Information Centre — alongside anything that is not 'truth'.

Most recently, Russia's newly-strengthened fake news laws criminalises those who disseminate "false information" about the Russian army with a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

The latest victim is Siberian journalist Mikhail Afanasyev, arrested two weeks ago over a story alleging that 11 riot police had refused deployment to Ukraine. He is one of 28 arrested under the new law — a further nail in the coffin for independent media in Russia, which has all but disappeared since the beginning of March.

In tandem, there has been a rise in the use of a wider range of laws to silence a free press.

Dubbed "lawfare" by human rights barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher, who acts for Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, as well as for the family of assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia (who faced 48 lawsuits when she died) this form of harassment sees journalists accused of legal threats ranging from fraud to corruption to breaches of copyright.

Gallagher says a new tactic is to hit journalists with a slew of lawsuits simultaneously, forcing them to fight on multiple fronts. This leaves them unable to carry out their work, scrambling to source specialist legal support and more vulnerable to the effects of smear campaigns.

CEO of Philippine news website Rappler and investigative journalist Ressa is the highest profile victim of this harassment. A prominent critic of president Duterte, Ressa has faced charges on everything from cyber-libel prosecutions — a law that came into effect after Rappler's publication of a story linking corruption to the justice system — to tax evasion and foreign ownership violations.

Meanwhile Brazilian journalist Patricia Campos Mello is currently facing three separate lawsuits, two by businessmen linked to president Bolsonaro following her investigative reporting.

One of these cases involves 35 other journalists, many of them freelancers who cannot rely on their employers for legal support.

Patricia — who also endured years of online smear campaigns — has bucked the trend by winning her own case against the president after successfully suing him and his son Eduardo Bolsonaro for repeatedly suggesting that she offered sex in exchange for scoops. They are appealing the verdict.

There have been small steps in the right direction, such as the EU's proposal for a new law that would counter the rise of 'gagging procedures' on journalists and human rights activists, including SLAPPS (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation).

Meanwhile the UK's online safety bill, introduced in March this year, would place increased responsibility on social media platforms to limit harmful content, although critics say it doesn't go far enough, and are calling for a far greater proactive approach from the tech companies themselves.

What is needed, though, is a co-ordinated and collaborative response — from governments and law enforcement to tech companies and media outlets — to protect the right to report freely and fairly.

Failure to protect our journalists is failure to protect the future of independent media. Countering the harassment they face is a moral imperative and must be a shared goal.

Author bio

Antonio Zappulla Omri is the CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and independent charity working to advance media freedom.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

How do you make embarrassing EU documents 'disappear'?

The EU Commission's new magic formula for avoiding scrutiny is simple. You declare the documents in question to be "short-lived correspondence for a preliminary exchange of views" and thus exempt them from being logged in the official inventory.

Column

Will Poles vote for the end of democracy?

International media must make clear that these are not fair, democratic elections. The flawed race should be the story at least as much as the race itself.

Latest News

  1. EU women promised new dawn under anti-violence pact
  2. Three steps EU can take to halt Azerbaijan's mafia-style bullying
  3. Punish Belarus too for aiding Putin's Ukraine war
  4. Added-value for Russia diamond ban, as G7 and EU prepare sanctions
  5. EU states to agree on asylum crisis bill, say EU officials
  6. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  7. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  8. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  2. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations
  2. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  3. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  4. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us