Access to Information

PI welcomes the inclusion of a provision on confidentiality and privacy. But there are still significant gaps in the zero draft which need to be addressed to ensure the treaty puts the respect and protection of human rights at the centre of the prevention and response to future pandemics including ensuring the effective regulation of the private-sector entities.

CPJ has worked with local partners to compile this directory of resources providing different types of legal aid to help connect journalists in Brazil in need of legal support with the initiatives and organizations that can support them.

This report diagnoses the state of digital freedoms, and outlines the most prominent patterns of digital rights violations and their trends during 2022.

A rise in serious violations against journalists last year included the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh and Ghufran Warasneh, documents a new report from Mada Center.

BAJ’s review of 2022 highlights 33 journalists in prison, 17 heavy prison sentences, and nine media outlets classified as “extremist organisations”.

A New Model for Global Leadership on Human Rights

This database contains information about journalists who have been killed in connection with their work. This could mean journalists who in IPI’s assessment have been directly targeted in retaliation for their work or journalists who have been killed while reporting, including while covering armed conflict.

The previous decade has witnessed an exponential increase in internet shutdowns in India with a total count of 690, out of which 110 had been implemented in the year 2021. The year 2022 has seen 75 shutdowns till the publication of this report.

This report documents cases of how repressive laws were used to curtail the right to speech, expression and assembly in Malaysia this past year.

Widespread destruction of Ukraine’s museums, theaters and libraries, the persecution of writers and artists, and other attacks against Ukrainian heritage expose the breadth of Russia’s attempts to erase the country’s cultural identity as a tactic of war, according to this report by PEN America and PEN Ukraine.

The Declaration of Principles for content and platform governance in times of crisis is an effort to advance consistent and rights-respecting principles for companies to respond appropriately to crises and meet their obligations and responsibilities under international human rights law.

This report takes stock of progress made towards accountability for the killing and injuring of protesters and activists committed during, and in the wake of, the 2019-2020 uprising across central and southern Iraq.

In partnership with the University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney, Media Diversity Australia (MDA) has released this ‘report card’ on Indigenous and cultural diversity in television news, with insights into what has changed, what has stayed the same, and opportunities to lead the charge toward greater diversity.

Countering an authoritarian overhaul of the internet

The report by the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, contains victim accounts that substantiate mass arbitrary detention, torture, cultural persecution, forced labor, and other serious human rights violations, and recommends that states, businesses, and the international community take action with a view to ending the abuses, and advancing justice and accountability.

ARTICLE 19 points out various aspects of the Brazilian electoral process, analyzing the many challenges the country faces from now until October 2022, and then after the elections and the transition, with the recurring threats to the reputation and integrity of the elections made by government officials and members of the armed forces.

With almost all independent media institutions eradicated, Cambodian people have been forced to rely largely on social media and other online platforms to access news and information.

New survey demonstrates an urgent need for comprehensive privacy and data protection Palestinian legislation that can protect all citizens’ right to privacy and ensure accountability.

This report sheds light on the issue of privacy and data protection in Palestine, examining the extent to which Palestinians’ privacy is respected and personal data protected.

The study mapped the capacity, knowledge, and needs of various stakeholders from government, civil society, private sector, and academia in relation to their work on content moderation.

Effective content moderation in a big and diverse country such as Indonesia requires a transparent and sustainable dialogue between platforms and local civil society groups.

With a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and as a contribution to the Social Media 4 Peace project, implemented by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with partner ARTICLE 19, this report explores the local-specific contextual concerns stemming from global, non-transparent, and profit-driven content moderation processes of social media.

This report presents a summary analysis of research on current practices of content moderation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia ‘harmful content’ such as ‘hate speech ’, and Kenya, with a specific focus on and disinformation.

Following a visit to Ukraine from 24 May to 3 June to investigate Ukrainian photojournalist Maks Levin’s death, RSF is releasing a report with information and evidence indicating that Levin and his friend and bodyguard were executed by Russian soldiers in a forest near Kyiv on 13 March, possibly after being interrogated and even tortured.

A new research by Media Matters for Democracy looks into the policies of the government and the experience of Pakistan in improving access to internet connection.

Efforts to Ban Gender and Sexuality Education in Brazil

A mission to Iraq found that human rights defenders, journalists and activists still hold onto hope for an end to the extreme human rights violations, but urgently need international support to help promote human rights, press freedom and accountability.

The Centre for Independent Journalism has published a brief about the state of media in Malaysia, the impact of the pandemic, and its recommendations to the Malaysian government on upholding freedom of expression.

TRUTH versus DISINFORMATION — The Challenge for Public Interest Journalism is MEAA’s annual report into the state of press freedom in Australia in 2022.

This report looks at whether the laws and policies in Thailand make it possible for children to access their environmental rights.

The report examines how Iranian authorities systematically violate people’s right to protest and assemble, deceive and lie about the violations they commit, and unlawfully keep people seeking transparency and accountability in the dark.

This report from the Cambodian Center for Human Rights outlines the state of freedom of expression, press freedom, and access to information in Cambodia during the first year of the pandemic.

Uganda is ranked 116th out of 130 countries in the 2021 Network Readiness Index which assesses the application and impact of technology in economies around the world. Compared to her neighbours Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, Uganda scores lowest on GSMA’s Mobile Connectivity Index, which measures key enablers of mobile internet adoption such as infrastructure, affordability, content and services.

Ahead of April’s general election, IPI’s new report finds that the Fidesz government has continued to systematically erode media pluralism, muzzle the independent press and manipulate the market to further entrench a pro-government narrative.

This report issued by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) documents over a dozen cases of torture in Iraqi prisons, which are described as some of the most horrific prisons in the world, where continuous torture practices take place in the absence of any effective government measures to prevent or at least limit them.

Ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections, Maharat Foundation examines Lebanon’s TV coverage of electoral campaigns, highlighting violations, and the marginalisation of women from the media space.

Submission in response to the call for comments by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as input for the report on internet shutdowns and human rights to the fiftieth session of the Human Rights Council in June 2022.

The guide takes readers on a journey all too familiar to many Syrians, from the immediate aftermath of a loved one’s disappearance – and the frantic search for answers – through the painful process of settling the disappeared person’s affairs.

This 82-page report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) details Beijing’s strategy to control access to information within and beyond its borders.

While privacy has become ever more crucial in the world where digital technologies are key to livelihoods and rights, there are insufficient protections for the right to privacy in many African countries.

The report highlights digital rights violations of Palestinians and pro-Palestinian advocates online, at the hands of the three authorities, as well as different social media companies in relation to the escalations and developments on the ground.

The internet plays a vital role in the realisation of human development and facilitates the enjoyment of several human rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of expression and information, the right to education, the right to assembly and association. Over the last few years, Africa has experienced exponential growth in internet access spurred by mobile internet, which stood at 28% penetration in 2020.

The specific focus of this report is on the intersections between freedoms of speech, expression and press, the right to privacy and governments’ responses to the pandemic.

MISA has produced this special publication to commemorate 25 years of sterling work by its Zimbabwe chapter in helping to promote access to information, in defending press freedom and developing a plural media environment to serve the needs of the public in the region.

This brief explores the repressive elements of media and technology-related laws in Sudan and how they have been used to undermine freedom of expression and other civil liberties in the aftermath of president Omar al-Bashir’s April 2019 overthrow.

Surveillance has become a principal threat to digital rights in Africa, a weakening force to civil society and independent voices, and ultimately a driver of authoritarianism.

In the high-stakes battle between states and technology companies, the rights of internet users have become the main casualties. A growing number of governments are asserting their authority over tech firms, often forcing the businesses to comply with online censorship and surveillance.

Today, governments across the globe are arguing for new powers to regulate the internet within their countries’ borders for national security, economic health, and other fundamental reasons.

The Public Prosecution needs to stop monitoring internet users out of respect for the privacy of citizens. The decision to establish the Monitoring and Analysis Unit (MAU) contradicts a number of laws and legal principles, not to mention the lack of transparency about the way it conducts its work.

Throughout the reporting period of May-June 2021, the government continued its verbal commitment to reform and introduced a set of legislative changes. But in practice, thanks to repressive government policies combined with discriminatory practices of politicized public institutions and judicial violations, the situation of freedom of expression and the media deteriorated further.

The Hong Kong press industry faced increasing threats in the past 12 months. Suppression from the authorities is felt across different forms of media; freedoms have seriously deteriorated under a repressive government.

This briefing paper first explains internet restrictions that the NLD-led government put in place before the coup. It then sets out a timeline of the implementation of internet restrictions since 1 February.

The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression monitored 154 newspaper articles and more than 136 hours of television and radio broadcasts in the first three weeks of July 2020, to identify key indicators of how the Syrian media covered the pandemic news. The analysis of the data we obtained revealed significant gaps in the Syrian media’s coverage of the pandemic, especially in disseminating accurate information and correcting rumors.

Privacy International (PI) welcomes the call for submissions by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression to inform the Special Rapporteur’s report on ‘disinformation’ and freedom of expression. The issues highlighted in the call for submissions are ones that PI with its global network of partners3 has been investigating as part of its work on the use of personal data, and the hidden ecosystem involved, in the online political campaigning context.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 further threatened the already precarious safety of journalists and media sustainability challenges in West Africa. Despite the obvious risks and challenges, journalists and other media workers navigated partial and full lockdowns to gather news about the coronavirus disease and filed reports often using unstable internet connections, to keep the public informed.

A new report by Aliansi Jurnalis Independen Indonesia looks into the impact of the pandemic on the welfare of journalists. The report also explored the state of press freedom in Papua.

The 19th Annual South Asia Press Freedom report goes inside the key media issues of the Covid-19 pandemic and documents the stories of struggle, courage and resistance of a media industry in crisis and under attack on economic and political fronts in almost every country of the region.

The report reviews ten years of violations against media and media professionals (from March 2011 until the end of 2020), and presents the implications of the conflict for media freedom and the impact on the work of the media.

IFEX member Globe International Center has released its annual report which details the activities, campaigns, and programs it implemented in 2020.

While a great number of people now use ICT for a growing range of tasks, many persons with disabilities in Africa still find it hard to access and use digital technologies. As a result, they continue to miss out on the potential digital dividends.

The Ministry of the Interior, through the prison administration, continues to discriminate among prisoners, based on the prisoner’s background and the reasons for imprisonment.

The Arab Spring erupted a decade ago, yet the reasons behind this wave of uprisings remain unaddressed. The Arab Spring’s aftermath continues to ripple across the region, even in Tunisia, the only country that had progressed to democratic transition. These ripple effects have coalesced into unique forms, depending on the country. In countries such as Egypt, political repression has deepened, while the struggle over societal values are simply surface indicators of deeply entrenched issues. Meanwhile, armed conflict prevails in Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Iraq, where civil society has embraced a heroic role in its traditional and modern forms of organization. In Tunisia, Sudan, and Lebanon, where there is relative freedom, the political frontlines are clearer.

The fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda has dealt a blow to the promotion and preservation of human rights in the region. Moreover, the outbreak of COVID-19 could not have come at a worse time, as the countries were preparing for their respective general elections.

The conclusions outlined in this report reflect the findings of the recent joint press freedom mission to Poland carried out between November and December 2020 by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR).

The information presented in this report is the first public account of Mansoor’s trial proceedings. It is based on statements from a source with direct knowledge of Mansoor’s case and it demonstrates the gross unfairness of both Mansoor’s trial and his appeal hearing– and how little the rule of law matters in the UAE when the country’s powerful state security agency is involved.

This study examines the impact of the gender digital divide on women in Pakistan during the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, various technologies have been deployed by citizens, NGOs, start-ups, private companies, universities and governments to aid the fight against COVID-19.

Government ordered Internet shutdowns are fast becoming a key tactic to disconnect people from each other and to prevent us from scrutinising our governments’ actions.

During nation-wide protests in November 2019 Iran’s government cut off the Internet for over 80 million people.  As the shutdown continued the authorities attacked and killed hundreds.

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled a crisis for democracy around the world. Since the coronavirus outbreak began, the condition of democracy and human rights has grown worse in 80 countries.

Access to information is fundamental for women’s empowerment. States and other stakeholders should ensure women have full rights and facilities to access information as a mechanism to overcome gender inequality.

Media networks have faced closing operations, job losses, and a weakened watchdog role for independent media. This report details the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the state of media in Nepal.

This report details the critical challenges faced by Malaysian journalists and media workers this year.

In recent months, since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the internet has been flooded with misinformation and fake news about the coronavirus. This led 7amleh to urgently consider how to more effectively research and monitor the phenomena of fake news in Palestine and engage the public in a conversation about media literacy, misinformation and fake news.

In recent years, social media platforms have been taking down online content more often and more quickly, often in response to the demands of governments, but in a way that prevents the use of that content to investigate people suspected of involvement in serious crimes, including war crimes.

The aim of this report is to present a series of abuses identified by our organisation during the state of emergency during the COVID-19 crisis. We have identified and exposed in this period actions of state actors that have threatened, affected or directly attacked fundamental rights such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to information and, implicitly, media freedom.

More than 50 human rights groups have written to the UN’s Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, and human rights in Belarus over disruptions to the internet that took place during the presidential elections.

This report examines the ways in which Beijing’s censors have affected and influenced Hollywood and the global filmmaking industry.

From 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, the monitoring report showed that the space to exercise fundamental freedoms continues to be restricted in Cambodia.

Press freedom has clearly become a key issue for Australians. MEAA’s third annual press freedom survey has found that when asked if press freedom in Australia had got better or worse over the past decade, an overwhelming 98% of respondents said it had got worse, compared to 90.9% in 2019.

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented lockdown to protect citizens in almost all countries in the world is enormous. Apart from the economic, political and societal consequences, it exposes and exacerbates all inequalities that existed before and it discriminates more against those who were already marginalized.

In responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, many governments have taken measures that limit access to information held by public bodies relating to the pandemic and other crucial areas of public interest.

Given the emergence and spread of COVID-19, it is all the more critical that we have access to news and information that we trust and can help in understanding the crisis and what is required to protect ourselves, as well as independent information on how our government is responding to the pandemic.

A s the novel coronavirus made a deadly sweep across the globe from the beginning of 2020, governments in South Asia tightened their iron grip over the media and democratic institutions.

Since the release of ANHRI’s first report in 2004 tackling the Internet and Arab governments, which is published every two years, the fight is still going on. The issue has not been resolved for either of the conflicting parties: whether the governments with their various institutions or the Arab peoples who are using the Internet and seek change in the world.

The Committee to Protect Journalists submitted a call to several U.N. special mandate holders encouraging them to join CPJ’s effort to secure the release of all jailed journalists globally in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

This document provides an overview of human rights concerns posed by the coronavirus outbreak, drawing on examples of government responses to date, and recommends ways governments and other actors can respect human rights in their response.

Freedom of expression has been one of the casualties of the epidemic, as some governments have used censorship, arrests and the application of repressive laws to address these challenges and control public narratives about the crisis.

In this study, incidents related freedom of opinion and expression are documented in three categories: oppression campaigns against freedom of opinion and expression; freedom of expression is the weapon of the revolution; and, media institutions amidst the revolution

This report by Digital Rights Foundation looks into the extent of information disorder in Pakistan and the efforts of various stakeholders to combat disinformation.

Understanding how China tries to influence the media is a first step to preserve press freedom. Hong Kong and Taiwan are on the frontlines of this battle.

This report lays out pathways for revitalizing local journalism in the United States. New, nimble outlets are emerging, and existing outlets are adapting and innovating – developing alternative revenue streams, experimenting with nonprofit models, rebuilding audiences, and better serving communities.

Between January 2017 and January 2019, about a dozen journalists in Cameroon were arrested, intimidated or threatened by state and non-state actors in the country. This was largely as a result of ongoing unrests in the country’s Anglophone regions who have accused the government of discrimination with regard to state policies and infrastructure.

There are concerns about how the secret warrant system is run. The flaws in administration give no comfort to journalists who remain fearful that the warrants are being used to identify their confidential sources.

Crisis en los medios y situación laboral de los periodistas

In this report, PEN America examines the steps taken by technology companies, government actors, and po- litical parties to curb the influence of fraudulent news in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.

The Citizens’ Analysis of Government Openness

The Citizens’ Analysis of Government Openness

The Citizens’ Analysis of Government Openness

The Citizens’ Analysis of Government Openness

The Citizens’ Analysis of Government Openness

A análise dos cidadãos sobre abertura do governo

The Citizens’ Analysis of Government Openness

This is the 10th Transparency Assessment Report of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), which examines the openness and transparency of public institutions in southern Africa.

There’s almost universal acceptance of the maxim “Journalism is not a crime”. One exception is Australia’s parliament – it begs to differ.

The report examines the rise of fraudulent news, defined here as demonstrably false information that is being presented as a factual news report with the intention to deceive the public, and the related erosion of public faith in traditional journalism. The report identifies proposed solutions at the intersection of technology, journalism, and civil society to empower news consumers with better skills and tools to help them process the torrents of information they see online.

The Report examines the progress countries have made since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals on implementing the commitment to make access to information available to all people in their countries.

Cuando hablamos de libertades en este in- forme no nos referimos solamente a valo- res abstractos que por lo general se nos ha dicho que debemos defender. Más bien, lo que narramos son historias de trabajo que se desenvuelven en el día a día y que están resistiendo a esas condiciones permanentes de marginación, opacidad y agresión.

After already cracking down on freedom of information in recent years, President Erdoğan has taken advantage of the abortive coup d’état and the state of emergency in effect since 20 July to silence many more of his media critics, not only Gülen movement media and journalists but also, to a lesser extent, Kurdish, secularist and left-wing media.

“After the initial optimism during the Euromaidan movement, many journalists have become disillusioned. They are faced with the triple challenge of the war in the Eastern part of the country, the economic crisis and the digitalization of mass media.”

The EU has made press freedom imperative in negotiating with candidate countries, but has been accused of failing to take strong action when member states renege on their press freedom commitments.

In 2014 Cambodian journalists increasingly found themselves in the news, as reporters faced injury and even death for covering the news. 2014 proved the deadliest year for Cambodian journalists since the political turmoil of 1997, with two Cambodian journalists confirmed murdered in relation to their work and a third, foreign journalist found dead under suspicious circumstances.

This report presents a review of the efficacy and capabilities of the Open Government Partnership or OGP to promote Open Contracting through the National Action Plans of their African member–states.

While media freedom in Spain remains robust and certainly comparable to its European neighbours, at such a critical moment for the Spanish public there is a need to ensure maximum access to the free flow of information.

In Dala, PEN Myanmar experienced a rare opportunity to work with a group of 200 or so high school children from the local state secondary school, which stands adjacent to the monastery compound.

As the United Nations reflects on the future of global development and the post-2015 agenda, access to information must be recognised as critical to supporting governments to achieve development goals, and enabling citizens to make informed decisions to improve their own lives. IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, believes that libraries help guarantee that access.

The goal of this report is to provide African governments, civil society, researchers and other stakeholders with a tool that will guide and support the development and advancement of the right to information in Africa.

This report was submitted by Globe International for the second cycle of Mongolia’s UPR (Universal Periodic Review)

CCHR has released a Briefing Note on freedom of information and legislative transparency in Cambodia, where laws are almost always drafted in secrecy, without the inclusion of relevant stakeholders.

By their very nature, libraries are poised to become forces for social change and using this exhibit as an example, libraries themselves can show the life of their communities by putting their responses on display to support their involvement in social movements, engage others, and document for the future

For the fourth consecutive year, the IPA and PricewaterhouseCoopers have carried out a global survey on the application of VAT on printed books and e-books. It reveals that much progress remains for countries to adopt a non-discriminatory, consistent tax regime for printed and e-books.

Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) is pleased to join the Freedom of Information Advocates Network (FOIAnet) in launching a major global analysis of the development of the right to information (RTI) movement, broken down by region.

The government has enacted unnecessary restrictions on access to information about forest concessions and land claims. Authorities have harassed and intimidated local activists who have been bringing attention to forest sector abuses, and a number of environmentalists and activists have been arrested or prosecuted in recent months over plantation disputes.

Burma is at a crossroads. The period of transition since 2010 has opened up the space for freedom of expression to an extent unpredicted by even the most optimistic in the country. Yet this space is highly contingent on a number of volatile factors.

This publication is a component of the National Endowment for Democracy, (NED) funded project that has unearthed a dismal level of denial to disclose information in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government in Liberia.

In scrutinising the GE13 coverage provided by the most popular and influential Malaysian media, the Watching the Watchdog media monitoring project found that different ‘Language Media’ (English, Bahasa Malaysia, and Mandarin) provide differential information about GE13 participants, although in all cases, they reproduce the pro-BN bias found by the Watching the Watchdog project overall

In scrutinising the GE13 coverage provided by the most popular and influential Malaysian media, the Watching the Watchdog media monitoring project found that the coverage of politicians and other individuals present within election reporting (both when mentioned and when used as sources) is heavily gender-biased towards coverage of men.

In scrutinising the GE13 coverage provided by the most popular and influential Malaysian media, the Watching the Watchdog media monitoring project found that citizens are being deprived of fair and objective information about the individual politicians who are taking part in the elections.

The controversial Protection of State Information Bill is one of the freedom of expression issues that Human Rights Watch examines in this report.