A new interdisciplinary study provides a grim warning to dictators and despots, and even leaders in democracies. Curbing press freedoms may irreversibly damage the economy.
New Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan during her swearing-in.
Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images
It’s gospel for First Amendment advocates that lawsuits against news organizations chill freedom of the press. But in an era of rampant misinformation, such legal actions may be more accepted.
There is a deep and widening gulf in trust and communications between the agencies and the media that has clearly boiled over in ways that damage both institutions.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in May 2017, greeting supporters outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Frank Augstein/AP
In her ruling, the judge rejected claims that Assange’s case was an assault on press freedom, which must concern anyone who believes in the oversight role that journalists play in a democracy.
Iranian state television reports the release of Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
Iranian State Television via AP/AAP
Academic freedom is under assault around the world. Academics and students are being killed, injured, detained and disappeared in a pattern of disturbing increases in state repression.
Kenyan journalists, some covering their mouths with tape, hold signs during a march to demand for press freedom in Nairobi in 2013.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images
Recommendations from a final report offer a few advances in striking the balance between national security and press freedom, but do not go nearly far enough.
Police searching the offices of Apple Daily newspaper in Hong Kong.
Apple Daily handout
Over the years, much of Hong Kong’s media has been bought up by China-owned or -affiliated entities. Now, the few remaining independent journalists face a new threat: the city’s national security law.
President Evariste Ndayishimiye takes the oath of office on June 18, 2020. He took over from the late Pierre Nkurunziza.
With the demise of Pierre Nkurunziza, all eyes are on Burundi’s new president as he inherits a political framework that has repressed press freedom and silenced independent media voices.
The BBC’s audiences have grown as it provides high quality news an information about the pandemic. But is it doing enough to hold the government to account?
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama uses social media as a way to reach constituents directly.
Zhang Liyun/Xinhua via Getty
In dismissing the case, Justice Wendy Abraham drew attention to a huge gap in the protection of journalists’ sources under ‘shield laws’, which don’t apply to most search warrants.