"The freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy and a critical component of a functioning society. In Kenya, like many other countries, journalists face a myriad of challenges when reporting on sensitive issues, including corruption and government wrongdoing. These challenges include physica
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l, verbal, and legal harassment, threats, pressure, and censorship due to media ownership and government control. This study employed semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore the perspectives of journalists in Kenya regarding the country’s current state of press freedom. The study defined a journalist as a professional who collects, writes, reports, or disseminates news or other information to the public via different mediums, including print, broadcast, internet, or social media, with or without an affiliation to a media organization. Findings suggest that journalists in Kenya face various forms of harassment and threats, including physical, verbal, and legal, mainly when reporting on sensitive issues such as corruption and government wrongdoing. The study also found that media ownership and government control significantly impact press freedom and independent reporting. Journalists often face pressure from media owners and government officials to avoid specific topics or to report in a certain way. The chapter concludes with recommendations for addressing these challenges, including improving legal protections for journalists, promoting media ownership transparency, and supporting independent media." (Abstract)
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"Drawing on a broad range of case studies across the continent, the volume considers what constitutes communication rights in Africa, who should protect them, against whom, and how communication rights relate to broader human rights. While the case studies highlight the variation in communicative ri
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ghts experiences between countries, they also coalesce around common tropes and practices for the implementation and expression of communication rights. Deploying a variety of innovative theoretical and methodological approaches, the chapters scrutinise different facets of communication rights in the context of both offline and digital communication realities. The contributions provide illuminating accounts on language rights, digital exclusion, digital activism, citizen journalism, media regulation and censorship, protection of intellectual property rights, politics of mobile data, and politicisation of social media." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from case studies from selected African countries, an international team of authors offer a broad insight into the state of harassment across the continent, while building new theoretical perspectives that are also context-specific. The chapters bring previous theories and research up to da
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te by addressing the continual change and development of new discourses, including the use of big data and artificial intelligence in harassing and intimidating journalists and mental health issues affecting journalists in their line of duty. More so, the authors argue that the state and form of harassment is not universal, as location and context are some of the key factors that influence the form and character of harassment." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing on cases from across the continent, contributors explore the form and nature of social media and government censorship, often via antisocial media laws, or less overt tactics such as state cybersurveillance, spyware attacks on social media activists, or the artful deployment of the rhetoric
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of "fake news" as a smokescreen to muzzle critical voices. The book also reflects on the Chinese influence in African governments’ clampdown on social media and the role of Israeli NSO Group Technologies, as well as the tactics and technologies which activists and users are deploying to resist or circumvent social media censorship." (Publisher description)
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