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This ‘Super Election Year,’ Press Freedom Is More Essential—and More At Risk—Than Ever
If this year is a litmus test for democracy around the world, a pre-indicator will be how the media are treated.
May 03, 2024
In just the first week of this year, at least 18 journalists were assaulted or harassed while covering alleged election irregularities and violence in Bangladesh. Then, in early February, journalists in Pakistan were hindered from covering elections by a wave of violence, widespread internet blackouts, and mobile-network suspensions. In March, journalists in Turkey had been shot at and banned from observing local elections, despite their legal right to do so.
It was a worrying, but not especially surprising, start to this “super election year.” With half the world’s population casting ballots, independent reporting on the candidates and the issues is essential. Yet attacks on the media are rising, even in more mature democracies. In the United States, Donald Trump’s return as a candidate has brought back fresh memories of January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol, lunged at journalists and destroyed their cameras, and scribbled “Murder the media” on the doors.
Such examples are illustrative of a broader problem. From the U.S. to India, hard-won freedoms and rights are being eroded. In 2023, the V-Dem Institute, which monitors democracy around the world, published a report warning that the progress made toward democratization since 1989 is being reversed. The authors identify increased attacks on journalists as a leading indicator of autocratization: “Aspects of freedom of expression and the media are the ones ‘wannabe dictators’ attack the most and often first.”
Independent, professional journalism—both local and national—is even more important now that misinformation and disinformation are flooding into the public domain.
There is no doubt that threats to journalists are on the rise, and not just in countries where independent media is always a target. Over the past three years, the Committee to Protect Journalists has documented near-record numbers of journalists (and even top media executives) behind bars, including in supposed democracies such as Guatemala, and in places that once enjoyed relatively high levels of personal and political freedom, such as Hong Kong.
Journalist killings are at their highest levels in almost a decade. In 2022, the American investigative journalist Jeff German was stabbed outside his home in Las Vegas, and a politician whom German had reported on is now awaiting trial for the murder. From Washington and Westminster to Buenos Aires and Budapest, journalists who cover politics receive death threats daily and are increasingly vulnerable to being targeted at political rallies and protests.
According to a 2021 UNESCO report, three-quarters of women journalists surveyed had experienced online hate, harassment, or threats of violence. Among the most likely triggers for such abuse was reporting on “politics and elections.” Women and those from marginalized communities bear the brunt of this anti-media harassment online, and the vitriol frequently spills over into real-world violence.
The consequences of this disturbing trend are not limited to the media. Attacks on journalists harm us all. Journalists perform the public’s due diligence on candidates, probing their professional records, the veracity of their claims, and the credibility of their promises. By reporting on policy achievements and failures, they help corroborate—or contradict—a candidate’s official narrative, exposing lies and smear campaigns for what they are. They also provide practical information about voting processes, and monitor for electoral irregularities and campaign-finance violations. Without such information, there can be no democracy, but rather what V-Dem calls “electoral autocracy,” where elections are empty rituals.
Independent reporting is also crucial for holding accountable those already in power. It was old-fashioned, pound-the-pavement reporting that exposed New York Republican congressman George Santos’ falsified biography, ultimately leading to his ejection from Congress (not to mention criminal charges). It was the news media that aired recordings of Peru’s secret-police chief, Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, bribing judges and politicians—revelations that would lead to the downfall of President Alberto Fujimori. And it was independent reporting on “Partygate” that ultimately forced Boris Johnson out as prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Independent, professional journalism—both local and national—is even more important now that misinformation and disinformation are flooding into the public domain. A recent report by The Associated Press finds that artificial intelligence is “supercharging” the spread of election lies through deepfake images and audio that is impossible to distinguish from authentic recordings. Similarly, a study released in March by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies found that disinformation had increased fourfold (compared to 2022) ahead of recent elections across the continent.
Independent news media are essential to counter this technology-driven trend. Consider Taiwan’s election earlier this year. Although lies flooded online channels throughout the campaign, studies suggest that much of the disinformation was defused by the combined efforts of local media, election authorities, and fact checkers, all of whom deliberately focused on building trust and furnishing voters with what they needed to make an informed, meaningful choice.
We now need to heed these lessons and watch carefully for warning signs. If this year is a litmus test for democracy around the world, a pre-indicator will be how the media are treated. We will have to remain vigilant in defending a free and independent press, and in championing a vibrant and curious local media. If we don’t, you can be certain that the erosion of freedoms will not stop with us.
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Gaza Internet Blackout Conceals Israel's Human Rights Violations—And Is Itself One
"It is unconscionable to toy with connectivity amidst unprecedented violence and unfathomable human suffering," said one campaigner, demanding global action "to end the war and internet shutdowns."
Jan 18, 2024
Human rights advocates sounded the alarm as Thursday marked the seventh straight day of a near-total telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip—the ninth and longest outage since Israel declared war in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7.
"For over 100 days, Gaza has endured on-and-off disruptions and internet shutdowns, with its people now facing the longest blackout since October," said Kassem Mnejja, a campaigner with the digital rights group Access Now.
"With the people of Gaza continually in the dark, documenting and sharing information about what is happening on the ground is increasingly challenging, if not outright impossible," added Mnejja, whose group is calling for a physical and digital cease-fire.
Paltel, a Palestinian internet service provider (ISP), said on social media last week: "We regret to announce that all telecom services in Gaza Strip have been lost due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is blacked out again."
"Long hours of service interruption," the ISP
added Thursday. "How many loved ones have we lost? How much do we worry about our loved ones?"
Despite Israel's claims that its troops are targeting militants in the Hamas-governed enclave, Israeli forces have killed at least 24,620 Palestinians—mostly women and children—and wounded another 61,830, according to officials in Gaza. Thousands more remain missing in the rubble that used to be homes, hospitals, mosques, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
Sharing a new graph from the watchdog NetBlocks that shows network connectivity in Gaza throughout the war, Mohammed Khader, policy manager at the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, noted that the start of the current blackout coincided with International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearings for the South African-led case accusing Israel of genocide.
This blackout began the same day as South Africa\xe2\x80\x99s ICJ case on Israel\xe2\x80\x99s genocide in Gaza.\n\nLike the blackout that followed the 2019 Khartoum Massacre in Sudan, this is an intentional effort by Israel to isolate Palestinians from the world and hide the full scale of destruction.— (@)
The section of South Africa's 84-page application to the ICJ summarizing genocidal acts states that "Israel is deliberately imposing telecommunications blackouts on Gaza and restricting access by fact-finding bodies and the international media. At the same time, Palestinian journalists are being killed at a rate significantly higher than has occurred in any conflict in the past 100 years."
A Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate volunteer
said last week that the group has evidence that at least 96 of the 109 Gaza reporters whose deaths it documented "were deliberately and specifically targeted by surgical Israeli strikes against them."
After an Israeli airstrike killed Wael Abu Fannouna on Thursday, Gaza officials announced that at least 119 members of the media have been killed since October 7. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified 76 of them.
"A communications blackout is a news blackout," CPJ stressed in a late October statement about Gaza—as Anealla Safdar, Al Jazeera's Europe editor, recalled in response to the NetBlocks update on Thursday.
"This can lead to serious consequences with an independent, factual information vacuum that can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation," CPJ warned at the time, also highlighting that targeting journalists or media infrastructure constitutes possible war crimes.
"At this dark hour, we stand with journalists," the group added, "with those truth-seekers whose daily work keeps us informed with facts that shed light on the human condition and help to hold power to account."
In addition to limiting on-the-ground reporting on the war, the current blackout "left civilians unable to call for help and aid workers struggling to reach them as Israeli airstrikes rained down on the south," The New York Timesreported Wednesday.
According to the newspaper:
Airstrikes and fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in Khan Younis have been so intense that repair crews have had trouble reaching the damaged sites, Paltel said. Last week, two of its workers, in the process of making repairs, were killed when a company car was fired upon, Paltel said, adding that it had coordinated the repairs with the Israeli authorities in advance. The Israeli military said the episode had been referred for investigation.
"Internet shutdowns are a matter of life and death in Gaza," declared Marwa Fatafta, Access Now's MENA policy and advocacy director.
"It is unconscionable to toy with connectivity amidst unprecedented violence and unfathomable human suffering," Fatafta said. "The international community must act now to end the war and internet shutdowns. The silence so far has been glaring."
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Press Freedom Groups to Biden: Stop Letting Israel Kill Journalists in Gaza
"We believe your administration can and must do more to effectively pursue accountability for journalists killed in the hostilities and to protect and support local and international journalists covering it."
Jan 10, 2024
With at least 79 Palestinian, Israeli, and Lebanese members of the media killed during Israel's war on the Gaza Strip over the past few months, half a dozen human rights and press freedom groups on Wednesday implored U.S. President Joe Biden to "act immediately and decisively to promote the conditions for safe and unrestricted reporting on the hostilities."
"The United States has a long record of strong support for Israel, including civilian and military aid, and is clearly one of Israel's most influential partners," states the letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Freedom House, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), Human Rights Watch, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Reporters Without Borders.
Since the Hamas-led attack on October 7 that sparked Israel's brtual response, Biden has bypassed Congress to arm Israeli forces while also asking lawmakers for a $14.3 billion package, on top of the $3.8 billion in military aid that the U.S. gives the country annually.
"The United States should use its considerable influence with the Israeli government to press them to ensure that journalists are able to safely document military operations and to shed light on their compliance with international humanitarian law."
"We believe your administration can and must do more to effectively pursue accountability for journalists killed in the hostilities and to protect and support local and international journalists covering it," the coalition wrote to Biden, noting other similar calls. "The United States should use its considerable influence with the Israeli government to press them to ensure that journalists are able to safely document military operations and to shed light on their compliance with international humanitarian law."
Committee to Protect Journalists president Jodie Ginsberg said last month that "the concentration of journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war is unparalleled in CPJ's history and underscores how grave the situation is for press on the ground." The letter highlights that as of Wednesday, CPJ has tracked the deaths of 79 journalists: 72 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese.
Local authorities in the Gaza Strip, which has been governed by Hamas for nearly two decades, said Wednesday that 115 Palestinian journalists are among the at least 23,357 dead, including many thousands of innocent civilian men, women, and children. Whatever the true figure for journalists is, the letter stresses that "almost all of them" have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken—who is visiting the Middle East this week—faced intense backlash twice last month for calling 2023 "an extraordinarily dangerous year" for members of the press, without mentioning those killed in Israel's U.S.-backed blockade and bombardment of Gaza.
As the letter points out: "The U.S. State Department spokesperson recently said that the United States has not seen any evidence that Israel is intentionally targeting journalists. Yet credible reports by human rights and media organizations indicate that the IDF strikes in southern Lebanon on October 13 that killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah and injured six other journalists from Reuters, Al Jazeera, and Agence France-Presse were unlawful and apparently deliberate."
"The IDF has also acknowledged deliberately targeting a car in which journalists were traveling on January 7, killing two journalists and seriously injuring a third," the letter continues. "In at least two other cases, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and IDF officers before their family members were killed in Gaza. Of course, the targeted or indiscriminate killing of journalists, if committed deliberately or recklessly, is a war crime, and the International Criminal Court has said that it will investigate reports of war crimes committed against journalists in Gaza."
The groups detailed that along with risking their lives, those reporting on the Israeli war on Gaza and escalation along the Israel-Lebanon border face challenges including "the refusal of Israel and Egypt to allow international journalists access to Gaza except under Israeli military escort (and even then, with restrictions on reporting), internet shutdowns that prevent news and testimonies from Gaza from reaching the outside world, arbitrary detention, and harassment and intimidation."
"In addition, the Israeli government is requiring media outlets in Israel to submit almost any detailed reporting on the war to its 'censorship' office for review, while banning reporting on significant topics of public interest related to the war in Gaza," they wrote.
"The Biden administration says it cares deeply about journalists' freedom to cover the war but has failed to demand Israel ensure journalists' safety or hold it accountable when it doesn't."
The groups want Biden to pressure all parties to "respect the right of journalists to report on the hostilities, ensure journalists' safety, allow all journalists seeking to evacuate from Gaza to do so, abjure the indiscriminate and deliberate killing of journalists, promptly and thoroughly investigate all attacks on journalists, and hold accountable individuals found to be responsible for them."
They are also demanding increased access for journalists along with "personal protective equipment and materials used for newsgathering," as well as "thorough, transparent, and public assessments of the end-use of U.S. weapons and military assistance to Israel."
The organizations are further calling on Biden to "support swift, transparent, and independent investigations into the killing of all journalists and ending the long-standing pattern of impunity in the killings of journalists by the IDF, including Palestinian American Shireen Abu Akleh," who was killed in the occupied West Bank in May 2022.
"The Biden administration has been all talk when it comes to journalists killed by the Israel Defense Forces," said FPF director of advocacy Seth Stern. "The Biden administration says it cares deeply about journalists' freedom to cover the war but has failed to demand Israel ensure journalists' safety or hold it accountable when it doesn't."
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