Violations against journalists for their work are on the rise. A UNESCO report states that since 2010, a journalist has been killed every four days. Globally, Mexico, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are considered the most hostile places to perform journalism. Comparatively, Europe is a safe haven. Yet it has also seen an increase in violence and harassment against reporters and publishers.

ECMPF’s Media Freedom Rapid Response identified 575 media freedom violations in the first six months of 2023 in EU member states and candidate countries; they affected 844 individuals and media outlets. 

The EU member states recorded 307 out of the 575 media freedom violations. The bulk of the threats were from Italy, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany and France. 268 instances were recorded from candidate countries, mostly from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Source: Mapping Media Freedom – Monitoring Report 2023

Some of the situations ECMPF considers press freedom violations include police attacking reporters who cover protests, politicians discrediting journalists’ work, and abusive lawsuits against investigative publishers. The most extreme form is the killing of journalists. 

Despite the rise in attacks, the legal mechanisms to get justice are often slow and in some cases non-existent. The crime of journalist killing has a 90% impunity rate globally; the same rate is said to exist in OSCE countries too. 

Dr Janara Nicolleti, a researcher of journalists’ precarious working conditions at LMU Munich says, “The problem of impunity for crimes against journalists stems from multiple factors. In many instances, the government is the main perpetrator. Sometimes the law system takes a lot of time to process these cases while in some instances there is no willingness to pursue the crimes against journalists.”

Journalists also face other attacks of physical, legal, digital, psychological and symbolic nature. A survey conducted by the IFJ found that one in two women journalists face gender-based violations while working. Women and minority journalists are more likely to face online harassment.

Nicolleti says “Impunity is even more likely in cases that aren’t aggressive. Like verbal attacks, sexual harassment, and other related topics, where there is silence from the journalists and the newsroom.” IFJ notes that in two-thirds of the cases of online abuse, nothing was done. In times like these, the organisation should play a bigger role in helping journalists.

Role of media organisations

News organisations need to play a more active role in securing a safer environment for their journalists. Nicolleti adds, “Many media organisations fail to provide basic support and training to their journalists. Such omissions from the media organisations put the journalists at risk.”

“Newsrooms should train the journalists before putting them under areas of risk. This includes preparing them for the imminent danger, securing resources to help them on the field and developing an exit strategy,” Nicolleti says.  

She highlights that publishers themselves suffer from many attacks. Yet they should play the role of an employer and support provider. “Newsrooms too are victims of violations. But they still are responsible for providing help to support journalists.” 

Community support

Nicolleti says, “In many countries across the globe, journalists are individuals working on their individual stories. There is no sense of professional community. This translates into a lack of shared camaraderie. By coming together, journalists can amplify their voice for better working conditions and laws.” 

An excellent example of journalists coming together is Forbidden Stories. The idea behind the initiative is that even after the death of a journalist, the story won’t be killed. After the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, her story was taken up by her colleagues. This initiative makes “censorship by death” pointless for the perpetrator as killing the journalist won’t bury the story. 

Resources

“In the last few years, the awareness about violations against journalists is growing. We see active work carried out by civil societies, journalists’ unions, media workers and academics. Many campaigns and trainings have been designed to educate and inform media professionals about their rights and protection,” says Nicolleti.

For physical protection 

RSF’s updated ‘Safety Guide for Journalists’ does the job of helping journalists understand the risk and protection measures in high-risk environments from natural calamities to covering protests.  

For online attacks

Researcher Chris Tenove recommends publishers to offer cyber-security training for their staff. He suggests the following resources:

For verbal attacks

One of the resources journalists can rely on is TrollBusters, a site that helps journalists learn how to protect themselves from online verbal assaults. Along with this, newsrooms should monitor social media sites and provide verbal support and training resources to their journalists.    

For legal attacks

The first step in getting legal protection is to register the threat. Many violations against media personnel go unreported. Such tendencies can result in the eroding of journalists’ rights but also the entire profession of journalism. Threats can be registered on ECPMF’s Report it page. Financial and legal support can also be gained from ECPMF.

Europe is still considered one of the safest places to be a journalist. Effective monitoring and safety interventions are needed to maintain this safe space to be the fourth estate of democracy.  

Source of the cover photo: generated by DALL-E 3

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