"Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing describes the ways in which the Chinese government and its ruling Chinese Communist Party successfully influence Hollywood films, warns how this type of influence has increasingly become normalized in Hollywood, and explains the implications of this influence
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on freedom of expression and on the types of stories that global audiences are exposed to on the big screen. Hollywood is one of the world’s most significant storytelling centers, a cinematic powerhouse whose movies are watched by millions across the globe. And yet the choices it makes, about which stories to tell and how to tell them, are increasingly influenced by an autocratic government with the world’s most comprehensive system of state-imposed censorship. The free expression implications of this fact are significant, and far-reaching. By influencing which stories Hollywood tells, the Chinese government can soften the edges or erase depictions of its human rights abuses; it can dampen movies’ call for change or encouragement of resistance in the face of oppression; and it can discourage or silence filmmakers interested in making movies that question or critique the Chinese government. Hollywood’s choices have global implications. If prominent Hollywood studios or filmmakers fear to push back against such influence, there is less chance that others around the world will dare to do so. It also reduces the opportunities for independent or exiled Chinese filmmakers looking for a new home for their talents, and undercuts any argument from Chinese filmmakers that the country’s censorship system is inconsistent with international norms of artistic freedom. There are countless stories to be told about China, and those that are non-controversial from Beijing’s perspective are no less valid. But there are also stories to be told about the ongoing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, the ongoing struggle of Tibetans to maintain their language and culture in the face of both societal changes and government policy, the prodemocracy movement in Hong Kong, and honest, everyday stories about how government policies intersect with people’s lives in the world’s most populous nation. Yet the space for filmmakers to tell such stories is shrinking—at least, unless they are willing to forego access to the world’s largest box office." (Executive summary)
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"Chapter 1, by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), presents an overview of indicators from the Global State of Democracy Indices, which provide complementary indicators to measure progress on SDG Targets 16.3; 16.5, on reducing corruption and brib
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ery in all their forms; 16.6, on developing effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels; and 16.7, on ensuring responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels. Chapter 2, by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), covers SDG 16.1, highlighting research on governmentproduced disinformation and censorship, and honouring the important work done by journalists worldwide, while also analysing challenges to data collection during the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter also analyses trends in violent conflict in past years and ends by highlighting potential innovations in data collection that could enhance independent monitoring of SDG 16. Chapters 3 and 4, by the Centre for Law and Democracy and the Global Forum for Media Development analyse data collection methods and assess progress on SDG 16.10, the challenge of disinformation during the pandemic (Chapter 3), and on access to information (Chapter 4). Chapter 5, by the World Justice Project (WJP), uses data from the recently launched World Justice Project Rule of Law Index® 2021 to analyse progress on SDG 16.3, on promoting the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensuring equal access to justice for all. The chapter also points to new types of data collection methods that can help improve independent reporting on this target." (Introduction)
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"[...] this book explores the complex construction of democratic public dialogue in developing countries. Case studies examine national environments defined not only by state censorship and commercial pressure, but also language differences, international influence, social divisions, and distinct va
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lue systems. With fresh portraits of new and traditional media throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia, authors delve into the essential role of the media in developing countries. Case studies illuminate the relationship between the State and the media in Russia, as well as the challenges faced by journalists working in Kurdistan. Further cases reveal bureaucratic censorship of books in Brazil, regulatory dilemmas in Australia, state policies in post-colonial Malawi, and the potential of oral culture for the strengthening of democratic conversation. Media, Development and Democracy brings the liberal democratic media model into new terrains where some of its core assumptions do not hold. In doing so, the authors' collective voices illuminate pressing issues facing our current global dialogue and our liberal and democratic expectations concerning communications and the media." (Publisher description)
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"Safety of journalists has been studied as part of freedom of expression. This chapter seeks to address issues surrounding journalists' safety and censorship in Colombia by shedding light on a triple menace: the decrease in journalistic quality, citizens' right to information, and the influence on j
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ournalists' professional behavior by analysing the multifaceted press censorship from 2008 to 2012, which occurred before the Peace Accord between FARC guerrilla and former president Juan Manuel Santos. Media ethnography and in-depth interviews were used. Employing the Bourdieu's theory of professional field, the praxis, rationale, and censorship of journalists during the conflict were mapped. The findings shed light on how the censorship went on during a more stable period in the conflict and how journalists were silenced and threatened." (Abstract)
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"The political context for practicing free and independent journalism has always been challenging in Turkey and ever more so after the failed coup d’état of 2016. This article examines and analyzes the changes brought about by this failed coup d’état in terms of their civil, legal, and politic
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al significance for news journalism and news journalists. More specifically and based on two sets of semi-structured interviews with Turkish editors and senior journalists supported by an analysis of gray literature, we argue that between 2013 and 2018 Turkey has moved from a pre-coup repression of news journalism (2013–2016) to a post-coup oppression of news journalism (2016–2018). The former was characterized by unsystematic attacks on news journalism conducted with impunity leading to a climate of fear that made self-censorship inescapable. In contrast, the latter relied on constitutional changes and the use of law to systematically compromise the civil institution of news journalism and to cast news journalists as political enemies of the Turkish state resulting in what can be likened to a loss of their citizenship. We further argue that the development from the repression to oppression of news journalism has been ‘authorized’ and ‘legalized’ by the constitutional changes that came into force on 9 July 2018." (Abstract)
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"This chapter’s point of departure lies in its focus on how journalists and media organizations navigate through unsafe environments and avoid self-censorship. The study specifically explores the connection between safety and self-censorship and journalist’s deployment of social media in the Uga
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ndan context. Through interviews and focus group discussions, the study shows that journalists and media organizations (sometimes) use social media to avoid covering unsafe news scenes and to bypass suppression intended to drive them into self-censorship. Journalists and media organizations are able to overcome state-instigated censorship by using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to obtain journalistic material, which may not be accessible through conventional means. Using the case of the Ugandan government closure of Daily Monitor newspaper in 2013, the chapter shows that the media organization heavily relied on social media to remain in operation during the period when it was under siege. The chapter concludes that employing social media in journalism practice is one of the mechanisms used by journalists and media organizations to surmount safety problems and repression. The author acknowledges the safety problems arising from digital tools and platforms but argues that exploiting the advantages they present, such as being alternative avenues for newsgathering, reporting and dissemination, contributes profoundly to the survival of independent journalism in non-democratic societies." (Abstract)
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"For the fifth year in a row, Somalia tops the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) Global Impunity Index on countries where those who kill journalists escape prosecution. The Somali authorities rarely investigate cases of killings or attacks on journalists, media outlets and critics. At least
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eight journalists were killed in south central Somalia and Puntland since 2017 when president Farmajo took office. Four of the journalists were killed in 2018 and two in 2019. Another journalist survived – albeit with serious injuries – an attempt on his life in 2018 when an improvised explosive device (IED) was fitted to his car and detonated. Aside from two cases including one in which a policeman who killed a journalist in Mogadishu in 2018 was convicted in absentia, no one has been held accountable for the killings or the attempted killings of the other journalists. The policeman remains at large." (Executive summary)
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"A newspaper’s printers, transporters, distributors and retailers are rarely named in its masthead or credits, but they are all essential links in the long and complex press distribution chain. Without them, readers would not be able to access news each day, week or month and they would be denied
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access to diverse sources of information, essential nourishment needed to feed minds in a democratic society. Press freedom is based not only on the ability of journalists and their news organizations to work without constraint or fear, but also on the freedom to circulate the product of their work. A publisher’s financial health must be preserved, printers must be free to print whatever newspapers they want, and finally, whether state-owned, privately-owned or cooperative, distributors must distribute all print media, regardless of their nature, with the same diligence and impartiality throughout the country. Any interference or any impediment in to this process limits the public’s access to information. According to a survey by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in more than 90 countries, 68% of cases of obstruction in the circulation of newspapers are attributable to governments and state authorities, while 41% of cases of newspaper censorship take place at the point of sale. Until it reaches the hands of its readers, a newspaper continues to be vulnerable, and the predators of press freedom are infinitely imaginative. Entire newspaper issues are confiscated as they come off the press or are bought up from newsstands, content is surreptitiously substituted, crippling import duties are introduced and orchestrated shortages in essential raw material such as newsprint all take place. Using these methods, if the individual, group or government hasn’t prevented a journalistic investigation or silenced the journalist, they still have many ways to block information during the dissemination process. The methods of censorship range from the most obvious and brutal – for example, killing a newspaper seller who is shouting out a headline – to the most insidious. It sometimes takes time, but the control that an oligarch or government exercises over the print or distribution sector may allow them to get rid of an unwanted publication discreetly and definitively. In an increasingly digital world where the print media is in continual decline — it lost an average of 10% of its readers and advertising income in 2017-2018 — newspaper printing and distribution sectors are more and more vulnerable to pressure. Because of this, it is imperative to expose and make public the practices that threaten our fundamental freedom to be informed." (Foreword)
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"We present a classification of the types of censorship of media to frame the various issues that journalism and freedom of expression face in Mexico, which mainly include the role of the State in preventing or enforcing censorship, the monopoly of a few corporate groups that control most of the mas
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s media and dictate fixed editorial lines throughout all of them, the effect of violence on journalism and the issues that are emerging around the freedom of expression in social media." (Abstract)
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"Cette oeuvre révèle le pouvoir géant des identités politiques et religieuses libanaises sur les expressions artistiques et médiatiques, tout en racontant l’histoire de ce pays et en analysant divers événements politiques, religieux, artistiques et/ou médiatiques qui ont eu lieu entre 1989
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, année de la fin de la guerre civile, et 2005, année de l’assassinat de Hariri et des faits tumultueux en résultant." (Dos de couverture)
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"Safety of journalists has been studied as part of freedom of expression. However, there is scarce qualitative research on Colombian regional journalists’ safety. This chapter seeks to address issues surrounding journalists’ safety and censorship in Colombia shedding light on triple menace: the
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decrease in journalistic quality, citizens’ right to information and the influence on journalists’ professional behavior by analysing the multifaceted press censorship from 2008 to 2017, which occurred before and after the Peace Accord between FARC guerrilla and president Juan Manuel Santos. Media ethnography and in-depth interviews were used. Employing the Bourdieu’s Theory of Professional Field, the praxis, rationale and censorship of journalists during the conflict were mapped. The findings shed light on how the censorship went on during a more stable period in the conflict and how journalists were silenced and threatened." (Abstract)
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"The study is comprised of three main parts: a desk study of available and accessible material – reports, documents and media material; a qualitative study comprising over 200 interviews with ordinary people, experts, and persons with direct experience with radicalization leading to violent extrem
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ism (RVE); and a quantitative component consisting of national surveys of people’s information consumption habits. For the desk study, the effort was made to gain as broad a picture as possible, that is, to cover all five countries of Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. However, predictably and unfortunately, Uzbekistan and especially Turkmenistan proved difficult cases to study in full. For both the qualitative and quantitative field research activities, for several reasons, only the first three countries were included. As a result, this study is able to report most robustly on these three countries and propose observations regarding Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan only to a limited extent. Based on the desk study, the drivers of extremist sympathies as established in existing research have been political grievances (injustice from state structures; identity-based discrimination; oppressive political regimes, etc), economic difficulties (unemployment; indebtedness; poverty; and desire for quick and greater income) and ideological motivations (resentment of false values; striving for the singularly just and true life; for reward in a perceived afterlife). To these push and pull factors are added a range of enabling factors, such as migration, young age, gender (women), and means of communication. All these drivers of RVE need to be treated with caution, as stressed by various authors and suggested by evidence gained in field research. A general observation, gained from the desk research and supported by evidence in both qualitative and quantitative field studies, was the difference among the countries in degree of control over the information space, or the degree of hegemony over public discourse. Of the three most fully studied countries, hegemonic discourse was the strongest in Tajikistan, followed by Kazakhstan, and the least in Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan, analyzed to a limited extent, would be closer to the extreme of Tajikistan, whereas Turkmenistan was too closed to make reasonably robust observations." (Page 3)
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"Drawing on relevant literature, analysis of North Korean media and information control techniques, and interviews with refugees and defectors, this report argues that a new US information strategy is needed to alleviate the social isolation of the North Korean people and improve their long-term wel
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fare." (About the report)
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"La libertad de expresión debe convivir con el respeto al derecho ajeno. Pero, ¿quién determina dónde se ubica exactamente ese límite? En una sociedad democrática como la nuestra que está regida por un Estado de derecho, es la ley la que regula esa dinámica. Aunque bien sabemos que las leyes
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no son expresión de las necesidades colectivas o de la equidad en las relaciones humanas. Por tanto, la delicada relación entre libertad y regulación se convierte en un terreno de negociación y disputa en el que las respuestas definitivas y consensuales resultan imposibles de alcanzar. Una de las instituciones que durante un siglo intentó ejercer esa regulación en el Perú fue el jurado de imprenta, que es el objeto de estudio de este exhaustivo trabajo del magistrado Carlos Ramos Núñez, el más importante historiador del derecho que ha producido nuestro país. En este nuevo libro, el autor ilumina el accionar de una institución que, sorprendentemente, no había recibido hasta ahora la atención que se merece. El jurado de imprenta se dedicaba a procesar casos de delitos de imprenta que podemos considerar comunes, en oposición a aquellos de naturaleza claramente política. Estos últimos constituyeron solo una pequeña fracción del total de casos existentes. Ciudadanos ordinarios que veían sus derechos y su honor afectados por alguna publicación recurrían al jurado de imprenta para intentar obtener justicia y castigar conductas contrarias a la convivencia y el respeto mutuo." (Editorial)
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"This collection covers the major trends of the media environment of the post-Communist world and their recent development, with special focus on Russia and the post-Soviet space. The term ‘media environment’ covers not just traditional print and electronic media, but new media as well, and rang
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es from the political to entertainment and various artistic spheres. What role do market forces play in the process of media democratization, and how do state structures regulate, suppress, or use capitalism toward their own gain? What degree of informational pluralism has been achieved in the newly independent republics? What are the prospects for transparency and the participation of civil society in Russian and Eurasian media? To what degree do trends in post-Communist media reflect global trends? Is there a worldwide convergence with regard to both media formats and political messaging? Western observers usually pay their keenest attention to the role of media in Russia and Eurasia during national elections. While this is a valid focus, the present volume [...] aims at understanding the deeper overall ‘media philosophies’ that characterize post-Soviet media systems and environments, and the type of identity formation that they are promoting." (Publisher description)
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"Die iz3w erscheint in einem Land mit einer »guten Situation« für Presseerzeugnisse (globaler Index der Reporter ohne Grenzen). In vielen Ländern ist die Lage infolge von Repressionen »sehr ernst«, zum Beispiel in China, in Iran oder Sudan. Auch in Ländern zwischen diesen Extremen kann freier
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Journalismus lebensgefährlich sein, etwa in Mexiko. Dabei sind die Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit Grundvoraussetzungen für Gesellschaften, die aufgeklärte Zustände und Partizipation an politischen Entscheidungen anstreben. Es geht um demokratische, freiheitliche und soziale Regeln, die einerseits im Bewusstsein, andererseits als verbindliche Rechte verankert sind. Wir lassen Personen zu Wort kommen, die sich für diese Ziele einsetzen, und fragen uns: Wie sehen die Produktionsbedingungen für die Berichterstattung weltweit aus? Wozu braucht es freie Medien? Wo fängt die Repression an und auf welche Weise wirken sich neue Medien auf die Berichterstattung aus?" (https://www.iz3w.org/printausgaben/heft-365)
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"For more than two decades, Uzbekistan has been a country with severe restrictions on free speech and media and some of the longest-imprisoned journalists in the world. There are now tentative signs of change in Central Asia’s most populous country. Opportunities for more open debate and independe
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nt reporting are increasing, but politically-motivated prosecutions and measures of state censorship still impose pressure and a chilling effect on media outlets, journalists and other government critics. “You Can’t See Them, But They’re Always There:” Censorship and Freedom of the Media in Uzbekistan examines the situation for journalists, media outlets, and the exercise of free speech since Uzbekistan’s second president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, assumed the presidency in 2016. Although Mirziyoyev’s government has taken some positive steps including the release of long-held journalists from prison, it has more to do to demonstrate meaningful reform in the area of free speech. It should immediately end powers of censorship, drop ongoing prosecutions against journalists, and allow effective access to information, including online. Advances for media freedom will be fleeting unless the government fully embraces freedom of speech and sends a message that peaceful criticism of government policies will be respected and protected in Uzbekistan." (Back cover)
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