CPJ says world’s media 'under siege,censorship widens'
A yearly survey conducted by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) shows that local censorship has gone global and the world’s media are under siege, with the watchdog role of a free press being publicly tarnished and critical reporting deemed anti-patriotic.
‘’Over the past 10 years, at least 301 African journalists have fled their homelands in fear of violence and imprisonment -- more than double the number of exiles from any other region,’’ the report said.
The CPJ report released on Tuesday and titled, Attacks on the Press said, ‘’repressive governments, militants, and criminal groups across the world are leveraging new and traditional tactics to control information.’’
The global media watchdog said, they do this with the aim of obscuring misdeeds, silencing dissent, and disempowering citizens.
CPJ cited examples in Eritrea and Equatorial Guinea's media blackout of the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring or Syria's blackout on the repression of protests, and Egypt's unplugging of the Internet.
‘’As China becomes a key trading partner and expands its influence in the region, governments from South Africa to Gambia are criminalizing independent reporting on bad governance, demonizing it as detrimental to economic development. Some countries like Ethiopia and Burundi even use anti-terrorism laws to prosecute critical journalists and cow the press into self-censorship. Repression is happening in the form of injunctions, amendments to laws, and seizure of footage,” the media watchdog said.
In the Americas CPJ said: ‘’The use of state-owned media to advance political goals has become a notorious trend in politically polarized countries in Latin America. In addition to delivering political propaganda, these outlets are serving as platforms for smear campaigns against critics, including journalists. Elected leaders have invested in large multimedia holdings, building impressive press conglomerates that further political agendas and exclude or vilify critical voices.’’
In Europe, the CPJ survey found out that ‘’The gap between countries that uphold press freedom as a core value and those that curb a critical, inquisitive press is widening.’’
In Asia ‘’Censorship in Asia is multifaceted, from official repression to violence that is regularly met with impunity. Since 1992, the region has seen 156 unsolved journalist murders.’’
Finally, in the Middle East the CPJ report said, ‘’Amid upheaval, the success or failure of popular uprisings rests with control of the national narrative. Journalists therefore find themselves the targets of new and evolving threats, with prolonged politicized trials diminishing while assaults and fatalities rise.’’
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