"More and more countries are deciding the answer to a bad press is to imprison journalists who dare to report anything that is critical." (Abstract)
"According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, 2 per cent of all journalists killed since 1992 worked on the sports beat. At present, however, we have limited knowledge of the specific dangers faced by sports journalists. This chapter presents findings from exploratory research on 78 reports of
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violations of the media freedom or personal safety of sports journalists. Threats to media freedom include being banned from press conferences or events, the seizure of passports or denial of accreditation. The personal safety of sports journalists is compromised through verbal abuse, assaults, attacks, personal and social media harassment, detention, legal pressure, and killings. The key perpetrators identified in the sample were fans, athletes and coaches, owners and officials of sports clubs and national associations, international sports federations, and authorities in authoritarian regimes hosting sports mega-events." (Abstract)
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"José Luis Benítez provides an overview of the safety situation in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador." (Abstract)
"Examines the statistics and looks at the trends in journalist killings and intimidation around the world. It identifies what factors have led to this rise and positions these in historical and global contexts. This important study also provides case studies and first-hand accounts from journalists
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working in some of the most dangerous places in the world today and seeks to understand the different pressures they must confront. It also examines industry and political responses to these trends and pressures as well as the latest international initiatives aimed at challenging cultures of impunity and keeping journalists safe. Throughout, the authors argue that journalism contributes a vital if often neglected role in the formation and conduct of civil societies. This is why reporting from ‘uncivil’ places matters and this is why journalists are often positioned in harm’s way." (Back cover)
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"Global press freedom declined to its lowest point in 12 years in 2015, mainly due to political, criminal, and terrorist forces that sought to co-opt or silence the media in their struggle for power (Freedom House, 2016). As of 2015, only one in seven people around the world lived in a country that
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had a free media system, a country in which the coverage of news was robust, and the safety of journalists guaranteed. The rest have been living in countries whose press was either “partly free” or “not free” (Freedom House, 2016). As one of the most dangerous places in a world that has seen a recent upswing in violence against journalists, in Mexico, for example, even a car crash is not a simple car crash. “You have to call somebody to make sure you can write about it,” one journalist said, “because it might actually not be an accident but a purposeful vehicular homicide organized by the cartel” (Priest, 2015). And while journalists are aware of how the government and cartels are controlling news stories, self-censoring has become a common tactic. The situation of journalists in Mexico is the rule rather than the exception. Journalists in Russia, China, Turkey, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and many other countries from around the world work also under severe and difcult circumstances." (Abstract)
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"It's going to be hard, but we must keep fighting the gangsters and governments that attack journalists, says a seasoned campaigner." (Abstract)
"New research suggests readers are ready to hear more about the dangers faced by those who bring them the news." (Abstract)
"This article considers whether thinking about journalism's present set of challenges is best served by the notion of “crisis.” It argues that adopting such a notion to explain a diverse set of technological, political, economic, social, occupational, moral, and legal circumstances misses an opp
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ortunity to recognize how contingent and differentiated the futures of journalism might be. It also raises critical questions about how institutions deal with uncertainty at their core, obscuring a fuller understanding of the permutations that get eclipsed by perceiving crisis as a unitary phenomenon." (Abstract)
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"The shocking beheading of several Western journalists during 2014, including the Americans Steven Sotloff and James Foley and the Briton David Haines, and the wide dissemination of their murder videos on the Internet, is a graphic, gruesome signal that something has changed in the relationship betw
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een journalism and conflict." (First paragraph)
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"It's time to confront the tide of violence used by governments against journalists, argue two fighters for media freedom." (Abstract)
"Given that over half the revenues of global newspaper publishing come from advertising (80% in the US and 57% in OECD countries, OECD, 2010), we study how media firms internalize the effect of their own coverage on advertisers' sales and hence on their own advertising revenues. We show, within a fr
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amework of non-localized, Hotelling-type competition among arbitrary numbers of media firms and outlets, that (i) topics sensitive to advertisers can be underreported by all outlets in the market, (ii) underreporting tends to increase with the concentration of ownership, and (iii) adding outlets, while keeping the number of owners fixed, can further increase the bias. We argue that self-censorship can potentially cover a wide range of topics and generate empirically large externalities." (Abstract)
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"On 26 January 2011, UNESCO hosted the second International Symposium on Freedom of Expression at its Paris headquarters. The Swedish National Commission for UNESCO sponsored the conference. The symposium brought together individuals and organisations linked to the field of journalism and sparked no
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t only debate and discussion on the future of freedom of expression, but also fostered dialogue between civil society and governments – an exchange that UNESCO will continue to support. The symposium consisted of three main sessions devoted to The Status of Press Freedom Worldwide, Freedom of Expression on the Internet, and Press Freedom and the Safety of Journalists. The conference was opened by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, and the Swedish Minister for European Affairs, Birgitta Ohlsson, spoke on the role of free speech and government accountability. The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, gave the keynote address, calling attention to the impact of new technologies on the field of journalism and the importance of promoting freedom of access alongside freedom of speech. The symposium was moderated by Helge Rønning, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Oslo. He made the opening remarks at each of the sessions." (Page 111)
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"Reporters Without Borders monitors abuse of journalists and freedom of the press around the world-a job increasing in difficulty. Since its creation in 1985, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has become one of the largest international NGOs dedicated to defending press freedom and advocating for the
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safety of journalists. In 2009, RWB noted significant increase in cases of journalists forced into exile, a statistic it incorporated for the first time into its annual report. Its researchers were able to identify that at least 157 reporters were forced to leave their home country. RWB's round-the-clock Assistance Desk provides financial and equipment support for media organizations operating in volatile regions, where violence goes unrecorded and little or no access to news and information accentuates the risk of grave human rights violations. Although exile sometimes becomes the safest solution for endangered journalists, it is also one of the most complicated and difficult. Visa applications are time-consuming and a confusing bureaucratic process." (Abstract)
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