Governments are using Covid-19 as an excuse to crack down on press freedom

‘Cases abound of how the “Covid-19 excuse” has led to the inability of journalists to do their job of reporting medically endorsed effective public health measures, or to challenge lethal disinformation...

‘According to RSF’s [Reporters Without Borders] data, journalism is currently completely blocked or seriously impeded in 73 countries and constrained in 59 countries. Taken together, these figures represent 73% of the 180 countries assessed. Only 12 out of the countries ranked are deemed to have a free and favorable environment for journalism (one fewer than last year): Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Jamaica, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, and Ireland.’

Read here (Nieman Lab, Apr 21, 2021)

The pandemic's digital shadow

‘The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating a dramatic decline in global internet freedom. For the 10th consecutive year, users have experienced an overall deterioration in their rights, and the phenomenon is contributing to a broader crisis for democracy worldwide. Three notable trends punctuated an especially dismal year for internet freedom... First, political leaders used the pandemic as a pretext to limit access to information... Second, authorities cited COVID-19 to justify expanded surveillance powers and the deployment of new technologies that were once seen as too intrusive... The third trend has been the transformation of a slow-motion “splintering” of the internet into an all-out race toward “cyber sovereignty,” with each government imposing its own internet regulations in a manner that restricts the flow of information across national borders...

‘Global internet freedom has declined for the 10th consecutive year: 26 countries’ scores worsened during this year’s coverage period, while 22 countries registered net gains. The largest declines occurred in Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, followed by India, Ecuador, and Nigeria. A record number of countries featured deliberate disruptions to internet service. On the positive side, Sudan and Ukraine experienced the largest improvements, followed by Zimbabwe. A raft of court rulings shored up human rights online in countries ranked Free, Partly Free, and Not Free alike. The United States ranked seventh overall, while Iceland was once again the top performer. For the sixth consecutive year, China was found to have the worst conditions for internet freedom.

‘Freedom on the Net assesses internet freedom in 65 countries around the globe, accounting for 87 percent of the world’s internet users. This report, the 10th in its series, covers developments between June 2019 and May 2020. More than 70 analysts contributed to this year’s report, using a standard methodology to determine each country’s internet freedom score on a 100-point scale, based on 21 indicators pertaining to obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights. Freedom on the Net also identifies global trends related to the impact of information and communication technologies on democracy. The data underpinning this year’s trends, in-depth reports on each of the countries surveyed, and the full methodology can be found here.’

Read here (Freedom House, October 2020)

Threatened, maligned, jailed: Journalism in the coronavirus pandemic

‘What we are currently seeing is not the arrival of new authoritarian regimes or attacks on freedom of the press, but rather an increase in tendencies that already existed before the pandemic hit. One could say the crisis has hardened the approach many authoritarian or dictatorial governments have taken against journalists.

‘We will not be able to say with certainty just how many journalists have disappeared or been jailed since the coronavirus pandemic began until the end of the year. However, we can report that as of today at least 231 professional journalists and 115 so-called citizen journalists and bloggers — that is, people disseminating information on authoritarian governments via YouTube or Facebook — are currently behind bars. Another 14 media professionals (photographers, camera operators, editors, etc.) are in jail as well.’

Read here (DW, May 3, 2020)

UN chief: Pandemic is fast becoming 'human rights crisis'

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns about ‘rising ethno-nationalism, populism, authoritarianism and a pushback against human rights’ in many nations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. ‘The crisis can provide a pretext to adopt repressive measures for purposes unrelated to the pandemic,’ he added. The UN chief's remark comes as governments around the world carry out extraordinary measures to deal with the pandemic and as activists have denounced state violence, threats to press freedom, arrests and smartphone surveillance, as many of the alleged abuses regimes have implemented to fight COVID-19.

Read here (DW, April 23, 2020)

Media freedom and fake news during the time of Covid-19

The likening of the fight against Covid-19 to a war should neither be a rationale for war-time measures, nor a free hand to muzzle the media and impinge on individual free speech. With new normals being expected, these normals must include a free media coupled with better protected free speech rights.

Read here (ISIS Malaysia, April 15, 2020)