Safety of Journalists CFOM Sheffield

The Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield (UK) is an interdisciplinary research centre with global outreach on issues of media freedom, journalism safety, editorial standards and impunity. During the 2022 Academic Consultation on the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, CFOM conducted a literature stocktake to scope out academic literature published in the area of media freedom, journalism safety and impunity. CFOM collated this information and produced a literature database organised by themes or countries for accessibility. The collection is especially strong on country- and region-specific safety issues and on surveys of emotional wellbeing of journalists.

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Factors Influencing Job Quit Among Newspaper Journalists in Pakistan

Waqas Ali, Muhammad Irfan, Ayaz Ahmed

Pakistan Journal of Social Research, volume 5, issue 2 (2023), pp. 710-717

"A survey was conducted on 446 newspaper journalists working in Karachi, who do journalism in Sindhi, Urdu, and English languages, to understand the reasons for their job quitting. The findings revealed that low salaries, job insecurity, and inconvenient administrative policies are why journalists l ... more

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Post-traumatic Mental and Physical Consequences of Frontline Reporting in the MENA Region

Lakhdar Chadli, Farooq Muhammad Haq, Ahmed Okasha, Rafik Attou

Open Public Health Journal, volume 15 (2023), 12 pp.

"Background: A current need in journalistic frontline work is to understand the potential psychological and physical traumatic consequences that may result from on-duty appointments. Journalists are active in frontline zones to report on conflicts, crises, and natural disasters. In the Middle East a ... more

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Online harassment of journalists in Nigeria: Audience motivations and solutions

Temple Uwalaka, Azubuike Fred Amadi, Bigman Nwala, Peter Wokoro

Media International Australia (2023), 16 pp.

"This study investigates the motivations for the hostility towards the press by the audience and how to control online harassment of journalists in Nigeria. Data for this study are from online and face-to-face semi-structured interviews of 54 Nigerians in Nigeria. Finding shows that perceived journa ... more

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Google Scholar (18)

WorldCat (15)

Arab authorities use digital surveillance to control press freedom: Journalists’ perceptions

Miral Sabry AlAshry

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, volume 25, issue 3 (2023), pp. 250-266

"The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of digital surveillance by Arab authorities, which face risks and threats of surveillance, and how journalists seek to press freedom by using tools and techniques to communicate securely. Design/methodology/approach: The study used focus group ... more

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Safety of Journalists in Ghana

Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey

In: The State of the Ghanaian Media Report

:Abena Animwaa Yeboah-Banin (ed.)

Accra: University of Ghana, Department of Communication Studies; Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) (2023), pp. 60-70

"The continual threats against the lives of journalists have been blamed for Ghana’s decline in the World Press Freedom Index ranking for the past two years. Even though much of the evidence for this has primarily been anecdotal, various efforts have been undertaken to compile reports of abuses th ... more

Google Scholar (19)

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Positive Impacts of Blockchain Technology on the Digital Safety of Journalists: An Explorative Study

Susanna Bottaro, Kumar Dheeraj Raja, Kimsey Zajac

OSCE (2023), ?? pp.

"The freedom of media and the safety of journalists are crucial elements in democratic societies. Despite global efforts to increase the safety of journalists, the profession remains plagued by perilous working conditions. With increasing digital threats to journalists' security and ability to work, ... more

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Google Scholar (15)

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Psychological and Physical Lived Experiences of Journalists Covering Terrorism in Kenya

Benjamin Muindi

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, volume 78, issue 2 (2023), pp. 251-266

"This research is based on 28 in-depth interviews with Kenya-based journalists who report terrorism. The objective of the research was to recount their lived experiences. The theme of safety of journalists comprised psychological and physical safety of the newspeople, and there were various ways in ... more

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Google Scholar (12)

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Becoming a Target: Journalists’ Perspectives on Anti-Press Discourse and Experiences with Hate Speech

Cedomir Markov, Ana Dordevic

Journalism Practice, volume 18, issue 2 (2023), pp. 283-300

"In many parts of the world, journalists work in increasingly hostile environments. To better understand the characteristics and implications of hostility against the press in a hybrid regime, this study explores how journalists in Serbia perceive and experience anti-press hate speech. Based on 20 i ... more

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Exploring Trauma Literacy Quotient Among Indian Journalists and a Way Forward in Post-Pandemic Era: A Case Study of India

K. Shilpa, A. Kumari, M. M. Das, Tanushree Sharma, S. K. Biswal

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, volume 78, issue 2 (2023), pp. 267–288

"The American Psychological Association defines trauma as “an emotional response to a terrible event. . . .” Trauma can be experienced as a response to either physical or emotionally disturbing circumstances. The Journalism and the Pandemic Project from the International Center for Journalists ( ... ICFJ) and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, in their global survey of journalists, have studied the impact of the pandemic on journalists across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused varying degrees of disruptions in the personal and professional lives of journalists. Traumatic experiences like covering traumatic events up close, COVID-induced health issues, job loss, pay cuts, and insecurity at the workplace have consumed journalists like never before. Overwhelming emotions like shock, helplessness, loneliness, depression, and anxiety are some of the reactions observed by mental health experts. Indian journalists, too, like their counterparts across the globe, have had to take on the challenges posed by this unprecedented crisis. This article intends to study the impact of the pandemic on Indian journalists both from physical and emotional perspectives. The objectives of the study include—(a) to analyze the journalists’ response to traumatic experiences during the pandemic, (b) to study the nature of trauma experienced by journalists during the pandemic, (c) to analyze how traumatic experiences affected the journalists, and (d) to explore and analyze how journalists managed to cope with the traumatic experiences. The study adopts social cognitive theory (SCT) as the framework. SCT comprises four goal realization processes: self-observation, self-evaluation, self-reaction, and self-efficacy. The four components are interrelated, and all influence motivation and goal attainment. Social cognition includes diverse processes linking the perception of social information with a behavioral response, including perception, attention, decision-making, memory, and emotion. The post-traumatic reactions include re-experiencing the traumatic event in flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and intrusive memories, hypervigilant arousal, impaired concentration, depression, sleep disturbances, self-devaluation, avoidance of reminders of traumatic experiences, emotional detachment from others, and disengagement from aspects of life that provide meaning and self-fulfillment, which impair intrapersonal, interpersonal, and occupational functioning. The scope of the study covers the journalists’ responses to traumatic experiences specific to the pandemic. The study adopts a mixed research method with a thematic analysis of the qualitative data from interviews of journalists followed by a factor analysis of the quantitative data from the survey of the journalists." (Abstract) more

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Reporting Trauma: Conflict Journalists’ Exposure to Potentially Traumatizing Events, Short- and Long-Term Consequences, and Coping Behavior

Magdalena Obermaier, Annemarie Wiedicke, Nina Steindl, Thomas Hanitzsch

Journalism Studies, volume 24, issue 11 (2023), pp. 1398-1417

"Due to the nature of their jobs, journalists reporting from theaters of war, destruction, and violence are frequently exposed to potentially traumatizing experience. This study explores how journalists go about trauma exposure, how they deal with its emotional fallout, and what support they get in ... more

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The erosion of media freedom in Ghana: A signal democratic backsliding?

Paul Achonga Kabah Kwode, George Asekere, Jasper Abembia Ayelazuno

Media, Culture & Society, volume 46, issue 1 (2023), pp. 112-129

"Ghana is a poster child of the consolidation of liberal democracy in Africa, the signal evidence of which is the freedom of the Ghanaian media as the fourth estate of the realm. However, recent developments in the media landscape of the country, such as sustained death threats, assaults, use of unw ... more

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Field Manual against Online Harassment

PEN America (2023)

"Whether you’re experiencing or witnessing online abuse, this Field Manual offers concrete strategies for how to defend yourself and others. We wrote this guidance with and for those disproportionately impacted by online abuse: writers, journalists, artists, and activists who identify as women, BI ... more

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Making the Invisible Visible. Guideline 2: Advocating on Emblematic Cases of Attacks Against Journalists Using an Intersectional Gender Approach

Article 19 (2022), 21 pp.

"This document is the second of a set of three practical guidelines that provide recommendations for considering an intersectional gender approach when: monitoring and documenting attacks against journalists and social communicators (Guideline 1); advocating on emblematic cases for advocacy (this Gu ... more

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The Strategic Bias: How Journalists Respond to Antimedia Populism

Ayala Panievsky

International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 27, issue 4 (2022), pp. 808-826

"As populist campaigns against the media become increasingly common around the world, it is ever more urgent to explore how journalists adopt and respond to them. Which strategies have journalists developed to maintain the public's trust, and what may be the implications for democracy? These questio ... more

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Counter digital revolution, disinformation, and journalistic constraints in Arab media

Sahar Khamis, Khalid Al-Jaber

Journalism Research/Journalistik, volume 3, issue 5 (2022), pp. 234-252

"The spread of social media platforms ushered the beginning of an unprecedented communication era, which is borderless, immediate, widespread, and defies restrictions and censorship. Digital technology aided the spread of democracy and freedom of expression and helped to overthrow some Arab regimes ... more

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Terrorism and the Performance of Journalists in Balochistan

Nauman Khan, Riffat Alam, Muhammad Junaid Ghauri

Journal of Business and Social Review in Emerging Economies, volume 8, issue 2 (2022), pp. 459-468

"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 ... more

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Securing Australian Journalism from Surveillance

Diarmaid Harkin, Monique Mann

Deakin University; Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI) (2022), 31 pp.

"In Australia, the Data Retention Act (2015), the Assistance and Access Act (2018), the Identify and Disrupt Act (2021), and the International Production Orders Act (2020) have significantly increased the surveillance powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies with implications for journali ... sts and the free press. This report draws on interviews with 19 journalists and 2 media-lawyers in Australia. The interviews were conducted between May and November 2021. The aim of the interviews was to gauge (a) the level of preparedness amongst journalists in Australia concerning surveillance, and (b) the impacts of increased surveillance powers on journalistic practices. There was wide variation in information security understanding and applied skill among media organisations and journalists. Some expressed “very low confidence” (Journalist F) that journalists were adequately prepared for the threats of electronic surveillance and a number conceded that they were not thinking about it “enough” (Journalist Q) or were just “learning on the job but could know more” (Journalist I). Some media organisations do not offer support in terms of education and training, policies and procedures, or formal guidance, and even among the most active and equipped organisations, support for cyber security concerns was described as “probably too far down the list of considerations” (Journalist D). In most instances, journalists were self-educating as “it is up to the individual journalist to make sure they are secure” (Journalist A). The 2019 AFP raids on the ABC and Annika Smethurst were described as a “holy shit” moment (Journalist P) that raised awareness of government surveillance of journalists. These raids resulted in many journalists and media organisations raising their efforts to protect their digital communications. Subsequently, over the past 2 to 3 years many journalists have migrated to encrypted communication applications such as Signal and Protonmail, while several media organisations have implemented SecureDrop for whistle-blowers to provide anonymity and security. Journalists suggested media organisations could do more to provide “formalised training” and “organisational support” (Journalist P) and invest more in their employees to provide confidence to potential sources that “journalists are good at this” (Journalist J)." (Executive summary) more

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Knowledge and Practice of Safety Protocols among Journalists Serving as Frontline Workers in the COVID-19 Fight in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Kenneth Adibe Nwafor, Emmanuel Chukwudi Nweke, Zainab A. Oji, Ijeoma Njoku

International Journal of Ebola, AIDS, HIV and Infectious Diseases and Immunity, volume 7, issue 1 (2022), pp. 20-37

"This study investigated the knowledge and practice of safety protocols among journalists serving as frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19 in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted. Structured questionnaire served as instrument for data collection. The popula ... more

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Journalism safety and the actuality of achieving gender equality in the media landscape of Uzbekistan

Mukarram Otamurodova

European Scholar Journal, issue December (2022), pp. 13-15

"Uzbekistan faces socio-political changes in the last years and the impact of these turnouts are reflected in the media landscape of the country. Several cases show that the issues of gender equality and the safety of journalists are becomingmore threatening. Some journalists suffer from political p ... more

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Sedition and Freedom of Expression for Journalists in Botswana: A Comment on Mokone v Attorney General and Others

Badala Tachilisa Balule

Journal of African Law, volume 66, issue 2 (2022), pp. 355-366

"Journalists play an important role in promoting and facilitating the right to freedom of expression. To promote and facilitate freedom of expression effectively, they should be free to perform their duties without fear of reprisals, intimidation or harassment. Journalists should carry out their dut ... more