Censorship

A new study examines discrimination and censorship concerns within the EU, affecting both Palestinians and global advocates for Palestinian human rights.

On World Poetry Day, PEN International released this report, highlighting challenges for writers in global conflicts and emphasizing the need to safeguard freedom of expression, especially in war-torn regions.

The report raises concerns about the use of spyware, SLAPPs and journalists in exile.

An overview of the threats and dangers posed by AI tech on Palestinians and advocates.

Journalists who cover climate and environmental stories are targeted by powerful private and state actors who are willing to go to great lengths to protect their lucrative interests linked to environmentally harmful activities.

The Hungarian government’s interference with media freedom and pluralism, part of its systematic attack on the rule of law, obstructs the work of independent journalists in holding the authorities to account and prevents the public from accessing information.

This report examines media capture in Greece through the four indicators of media capture: capture of private media, capture of public media, capture of the system of funding media and capture of media regulators.

“The international system that we rely on to protect human rights is under threat as world leaders look the other way when universal principles of human rights are violated.”

Human Rights Watch found that the problem stems from flawed Meta policies and their inconsistent and erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals.

A total 52 incidents of press freedom violations were recorded in 2023, while Freedom Forum’s annual media report shows the severe impact of the economic downturn on Nepali media.

The report provides an overview on the reality of the Israeli surveillance systems industry, outlines its impact on the human rights of Palestinians and implications worldwide.

In this report, EFF explores a new approach to tackling online harms leaving behind strategies based on ill-conceived bills and censorship-driven solutions.

As we publish the investigations from this project, GCHR’s Journalists’ Protection Coordinator Zaynab Al-Khawaja says, “While working on this project I have been overwhelmed by how much my colleagues on the ground have to face and overcome, and I have been very scared for them.”

When PEN America and Meedan asked writers, journalists, and creators about their experiences reporting online abuse to social media platforms, thet heard again and again, over the past three years, about the deep frustration, exasperation, and harm caused by the reporting mechanisms themselves.

The report noted that the government’s crackdown on fundamental freedoms hindered public participation and undermined the advancement of democracy in Cambodia.

Freedom House has found that while innovations in AI contributed to the 13th consecutive year of global decline in internet freedom, older forms of digital repression continued to proliferate.

Joint press freedom mission to Greece concludes with a call on the government to show political courage and take specific measures to improve the climate for independent journalism.

The report contains previously unpublished data on the obstacles to press freedom, particularly for local journalists, in the Brazilian Amazon, a region at the heart of the global climate challenge.

PEN America warns that social media blowback and societal outrage are imposing new moral litmus tests on books and authors, chilling literary expression and fueling a dangerous trend of self-censorship that is shrinking writers’ creative freedom and imagination.

As London hosts the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit, ARTICLE 19 releases a new briefing assessing the progress made towards meeting the SDG on freedom of expression and access to information.

Two years after historic July 11 Demonstrations in Cuba, the plight of writers and artists forced Into exile underscores the drastic deterioration of artistic freedom on the island.

Survey finds that 90% of fact-checking outlets in Europe have been the target of online harassment and smear campaigns.

The Unfreedom Monitor report provides insights into the current state of freedom in Venezuela and highlights challenges faced by journalists and media in the country.

This report analyses two major incidents: the disclosure that Pegasus spyware has been used against journalists from independent media outlets and representatives of civil society, and Bukele’s legal advisor’s threats against two women journalists for not revealing anonymous sources included in a news story.

The report traces this form of censorship done through blocking of websites, applications, and social media accounts in India.

A methodology for tracking digital authoritarianism around the world.

Analysis of selected court decisions from across the globe.

Perpetrators from a total of 20 states were responsible for 79 incidents of physical transnational repression last year, including the first documented cases originating in Djibouti and Bangladesh.

Marking 50 years in the struggle for democracy

The report reveals a continued degradation of press freedom across the continent. Throughout 2022, the Platform documented 289 alerts concerning 37 countries, with journalists being murdered, imprisoned, physically attacked, legally harassed, and subjected to smear campaigns.

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ+) women and non-binary people around the world face violence from security forces, family members, and others, along with widespread discrimination that prevents them from building relationships, homes, and families, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

Research carried out by the IPC and the MFWA indicates that the challenges faced by women journalists in doing their work include harassment, sexual advances, threats, and prejudice.

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.

140 media freedom violations were recorded in Ukraine alone, which amount to 17.2% of the total registered in all analysed countries. The war in Ukraine also accounted for nine of the 10 killings of journalists during the year.

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.

The human rights crisis in Egypt has persisted and even worsened over the last three years, as confirmed by the mid-term report submitted by the Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights{1} to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism at the United Nations.

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

Press freedom violations in Bangladesh, April-September 2022.

With the advancement of access to the internet and the consequent manifold increase in using the internet as a platform for exercising speech and expression, there has also been an increase in censorship of expression. The report traces this form of censorship carried out through the blocking of websites, applications, and social media accounts in India.

A New Model for Global Leadership on Human Rights

Freedom Forum’s annual media report for 2022 states that in total 45 incidents of press freedom violations occurred in Nepal, and 120 journalists were directly affected. Compared to the previous year, the number of violations declined, but the number of affected journalists increased, which the report has noted is a worrying trend.

In a country where the press routinely remains under threat and faces attacks from many fronts, the media in Pakistan operated on slippery grounds in 2022 with a flurry of cases against journalists, television channel closures, charged political rhetoric enabling attacks against the media, overreach by media regulatory bodies and the killing of two journalists, including he brutal murder of one journalist on foreign soil that shook the nation.

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.

A record total of 533 journalists are currently detained worldwide, according to the annual round-up of violence and abuses against journalists published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The number of those killed has increased again this year – to 57– while 65 journalists are being held hostage and 49 are missing.

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 Unfreedom Monitor is a project to analyze, document, and report on the growing use of digital communications technology to advance authoritarian governance around the world.

The report captures growing anxiety among artists and creative practitioners across South, Southeast, East, and Central Asia around stringent security laws, the lack of unencumbered spaces for free expression, and the impact of authoritarian measures to crack down on artistic production and criminalize free expression.

Countering an authoritarian overhaul of the internet

A new report from Freedom House highlights the Beijing government’s global campaign to shape public opinion and secure both its hold on power in China and its policy priorities abroad.

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.

In July 2022, ARTICLE 19 documented a number of concerning cases in which individuals were prosecuted for allegedly blasphemous speech. Malaysian authorities have investigated individuals under Section 298A of the Penal Code, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act, and the Sedition Act.

Human Rights Watch documents a range of tactics that, when used together, form an ecosystem of repression, aiming not only to muzzle dissenting voices but to scare off all potential critics.

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.

Physical transnational repression is only the tip of an iceberg. Digital threats, spyware, and coercion by proxy means that – for millions of people around the world – transnational repression has become a common and institutionalised practice.

Freedom Forum published its annual World Press Freedom Day report which highlighted the attacks against journalists in Nepal over the past year.

The guide was developed in response to the growing threat of digital surveillance and cyber security legislation, used by governments and others to track and monitor journalists in their efforts to harass and muzzle journalists from carrying out their work.

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.

Writers and public intellectuals have been unjustly locked up for their exercise of free expression; dozens are currently serving sentences of 10 years or more for their words.

The democratic revolution in West Africa over the past three decades has come under a strain in the past few years with serious implications for press freedom and the civic space.

While the presence of women writers and columnists in literature and journalism continues to be a minority in these countries, this reality is changing: new generations of women writers, whether poets, short story writers, journalists or novelists, are making their voices heard more day by day.

According to the BCHR Annual Report, the human rights situation did not improve in 2021. The authorities are still intolerant to dissent and criticism and restrict Bahrainis’ exercise of internationally-guaranteed fundamental rights.

This report analyzes 100 judgments on cybercrime cases made by local courts in Nepal.

Report of the 1-15 December 2021 joint fact-finding mission. The partner organisations conclude that challenges to the independence of the media and the safety of journalists are systemic in the country. While the problems are not unique, their intensity is highly problematic and sets it apart from most other EU Member States.

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.

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.

A Safer World For The Truth investigation. The murder of Gerry Ortega is indicative of structural problems concerning the safety of journalists in the Philippines; while the hitmen are often arrested, the powerful masterminds behind the killings of journalists often evade justice.

Attacked while covering demonstrations, harassed online for reporting on COVID�19 and measures to fight it, or sued by private companies trying to avoid publication of damaging information. These are just some examples of the threats received by journalists and media workers in Europe in 2021.

“This report, which is rich with documented facts and detailed case studies, confirms that torture in the UAE is systematic. Furthermore, as a totalitarian state, torture is carried out on direct instructions from the highest authorities in the country.”

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

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.

PEN America’s report explores the creative response to the February 2021 coup in Myanmar and the brutal retaliation by the military.

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.

According to the RSF annual round-up published today, a record number of journalists – 488, including 60 women – are currently detained worldwide, while another 65 are being held hostage.

Between January and September 2021, 24 legislatures across the United States introduced 54 separate bills intended to restrict teaching and training in K-12 schools, higher education, and state agencies and institutions. The majority of these bills target discussions of race, racism, gender, and American history and appear designed to chill academic and educational discussions and impose government dictates on teaching and learning.

Ten years on, the pro-democracy movement leaders are still behind bars, the major opposition political parties are outlawed, and the only independent newspaper in the country is indefinitely suspended. The Government of Bahrain’s (GoB) crackdown on free expression is in full force, as well as attempts to intimidate its critics into silence.

Journalists in most MENA countries continue to face all forms of repression, intimidation, and harassment, including the use of the judiciary to prevent them from carrying out their professional journalistic work. The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has documented many cases of journalists murdered or abused, most carried out with total impunity.

The space for free expression in Pakistan continues to shrink with the media facing attacks on all fronts. Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) has observed an alarming trend during 2021 where not only did physical attacks against the media continue with impunity but the state level push to restrict free expression also grew.

The media in Pakistan works within an increasingly repressive environment with the attacks on press freedom coming from all fronts. While physical attacks including abductions, manhandling, arrests and in some instances killings of journalists for their work continue, as online spheres such as social media platforms are of growing importance to the work of media professionals, journalists become the subject of attacks online.

Worryingly, many African countries have passed legislation that limits anonymity and the use of encryption, purportedly to aid governments’ efforts to combat terrorism and crime. Other governments limit the use of encryption to enable them to monitor the communications of critical journalists, human rights defenders, and opposition politicians.

Ministerial Regulation 5 governs the functioning of private electronic systems operators (ESOs) accessible in Indonesia which include social media platforms, search engines, ecommerce platforms, games, and communications services.

This report by the Free Media Movement provides an overview of the state of media freedom in Sri Lanka in 2020.

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.

In this analysis, ARTICLE 19 reviews the Ministerial Order the Ministerial Order for its compliance with international freedom of expression standards. The Order was approved by the National Security Council of Spain and published on 30 October 2020 by the Minister of the Presidency.

This Bytes for All report maps Pakistan’s internet landscape highlighting digital trends and their impact on socio-economic developments, as well as challenges and threats in the digital age during 2019-20.

Despite credible and consistent evidence that Bangladesh security forces routinely commit enforced disappearances, the ruling Awami League has ignored calls by donor governments, the UN, human rights organizations, and civil society to address the culture of impunity.

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.

In Hungary, Poland and Turkey, increasing control of ruling parties over state-controlled companies, advertising agencies, media regulators, competition watchdogs and even the courts, has allowed for a steady intensification and diversification of campaigns against critical press.

The last six years have been extremely repressive for the media in Nigeria as impunity reached a new high under  President Muhammadu Buhari. About 300 press freedom violations including the unresolved killings of seven journalists were recorded over the period.

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.

The Slovenian government of Prime Minister Janez Janša is overseeing an increasingly systematic effort to undermine critical media, a coalition of press freedom organisations and journalism groups warn in this report.

In the five years since the coup attempt, dozens of writers, artists, and other creatives have been targeted, prosecuted, and jailed by Turkish authorities.

As the Expression Interrupted platform, which has been operating as part of the Platform for Independent Journalism (P24) since 2017, we present our first periodic report with the aim of sharing the results of our efforts to track violations of freedom of expression and the press in Turkey with the general public more effectively.

The study focuses on 7 topics:

• The media’s concerns regarding the parliamentary elections
• The demands of the October 17 Movement and television coverage
• Monitoring women’s representations in the media and their political participation
• Monitoring the priorities of traditional and alternative media
• The media’s interest in corruption issues
• The union and student elections and coverage by traditional and alternative media
• New influencers and media figures through social platforms

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.

PEN America’s Writers at Risk Database is a searchable catalog of the writers, journalists, artists, academics, and public intellectuals under threat around the world. The database includes historical cases PEN America has worked on from 1987 onwards; non-active cases are color-coded black.

Hate speech has long been pervasive in Pakistani society, especially directed towards individuals and groups belonging to minority faiths (and those of no faith). Those not following the majority’s Sunni faith, are given different titles and labels while several stereotypes are associated with different faiths, sects and religions, including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, Sikhs and Shias. However, when it comes to online spaces where more and more people are joining different social media platforms to express their views and share their opinions (or those of others whom they support), these labels, titles and stereotypes get hugely amplified, attracting widespread attention across whole communities.

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.

In this annual report, GCHR presents a summary of our e#orts in advocating for HRDs, activists, journalists and citizens in exercising their human rights and freedoms and protecting these rights in the region.

This paper by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media surveys the challenges facing journalists in Cambodia and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on media reporting.

To mark International Women’s Day, RSF has published this report that reveals the extent of the dangers of sexist and sexual violence for women journalists, and its impact on journalism.

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 Global Scale and Scope of Transnational Repression

In creating this manual, ARC aspires to offer concrete recommendations and provide a comprehensive tool kit to help artists navigate, counter, and overcome threats and persecution.

In 2020 Pakistani media was confronted with unique new challenges, both in terms of content to cover as well as in the nature of the measures restricting press freedom and the free flow of information in the country.

The mission was organised in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the sharp rise in targeting of media by regulators, increased physical attacks on journalists and a new restrictive law on social media with the potential to impose further limitations on the remaining spaces for independent reporting and public commentary.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Writers and intellectuals are often among the canaries in the coal mine who, alongside journalists and human rights activists, are first targeted when a country takes a more authoritarian turn.

The October 17 uprising in Lebanon – fueled by rampant corruption and the country’s worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990 – has sparked a newfound collective consciousness  where the rights and identities of marginalized groups are part and parcel of the protests.

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.

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.

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.

Key Finding: Governments harness big data for social media surveillance

Since President John Magufuli came to power in 2015, Tanzania has seen a sharp backslide in respect for basic freedoms of association and expression, undermining both media freedoms and civil society. While some restrictive trends may have predated his term, they have intensified since he became president.

The reality of book banning in American prisons is systematic and comprehensive. State and federal prison authorities censor content with little oversight or public scrutiny.

In recent years, Cubans have experienced mo- mentous change, from a gradual loosening of eco- nomic restrictions to greater access to cell phones, Wi-Fi, and social media. But the Cuban govern- ment continues to operate in a highly centralized and controlled way, including in the arts sector,

A key indicator of whether Uzbekistan’s still-authoritarian government’s reforms are genuine and will be ultimately successful is in the media sphere and the core right of free speech.

Covering women’s issues does not come without danger. A female editor was murdered for denouncing a sexist policy. A reporter was imprisoned for interviewing a rape victim. A woman reporter was physically attacked for defending access to tampons, while a female blogger was threatened online for criticizing a video game. For International Women’s Day, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) wants to turn the spotlight on violence against journalists covering these issues. This report does not address the status of women journalists, equal employment of women in journalism or sexist (or non-sexist) attitudes in the media. These issues have been widely covered and debated elsewhere. This report focuses specifically on threats and violence against both men and women reporters covering women’s rights.

This “LGBT Censorship in Lebanon” report tackles the impact of censorship, unequal treatment and the arbitrariness of legislation on the daily lives of the Lebanese LGBT Community and more generally all LGBT-related content in Lebanon.

In this report we take a closer look on how a traditionally safe space for free speech and expression was transformed into a space of unregulated arbitrary legal practices. We also examine the effect that the ever-changing political objectives, affiliations and temporal objectives all have on the frequency and severity of online political censorship cases.

Combining both violent and nonviolent methods, the Communist Party’s policies are designed to curb the rapid growth of religious communities and eliminate certain beliefs and practices, while also harnessing aspects of religion that could serve the regime’s political and economic interests.

With populist and nationalist forces making significant gains in democratic states, 2016 marked the 11th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.

The purpose of this report is to offer an outline of the main events and trends regarding freedom of speech and, in particular, media freedom.

Many journalists increasingly practice self-censorship, fearing retribution from security forces, military intelligence, and militant groups. Media outlets in 2016 remained under pressure to avoid reporting on or criticising human rights violations in counterterrorism operations. The Taliban and other armed groups threatened media outlets and targeted journalists and activists for their work.

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.

This publication presents the findings of the media development assessment in Mongolia that began in 2012 to determine the state of the media in the country. The assessment was based on the UNESCO/IPDC Media Development Indicators (MDIs), an internationally recognized analytical tool used to provide detailed overviews of national media landscapes and related media development priorities.

Violence against journalists in Europe increased in the second quarter of 2016, reports submitted to Index on Censorship’s Mapping Media Freedom platform show, as a government crackdown in Turkey intensified and protests turned violent in countries from France to Finland.

“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.”

An officer of the Myanmar army recently filed a criminal complaint against two journalists for allegedly sowing disunity among the military. Even though mediation by the Press Council caused the military to withdraw the case, this incident demonstrates how the military continues to throw its weight to get back at what it perceives as negative publicity.

In recent years, the space afforded to civil society to operate freely has been shrinking dramatically across the world, presenting a serious threat to democracy and human rights. Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) have been especially badly affected by this shrinking political space.

The report is a frank assessment of the recent regime of online censorship and mass surveillance against a backdrop of longstanding, serious abuses of the judicial process and attacks on freedom of expression by Turkish authorities.

The report surveys the rocky landscape for media and public discourse since the ruling military junta lifted the curtain on the southeast Asian nation in 2012 after five decades of isolation from the modern world.

This report scrutinizes legislation covering freedom of expression and religious freedom in the Balkans, and whether satire and blasphemy are in any way regulated in these countries.

Despite its Constitutional commitment to free speech, India’s legal system makes it surprisingly easy to silence others. Routine corruption, inefficiency, and the selective enforcement of vague and overbroad laws allow individuals, or small groups, to censor opinions they find distasteful. – See more at: http://www.pen-international.org/the-india-report-executive-summary-and-key-findings/#sthash.TIIM2xbu.dpuf

As Globe International Center (GIC) reported, from 2012-2014, violations against journalists and the media increased compared to previous years and journalists faced external threats and intervention in their professional work, different types of pressures, threats, censorship in distribution, demands to reveal their information sources, to question and give testimony in mass by law enforcement bodies, especially by the General Intelligence Agency, use of criminal defamation law by politicians and public bodies or public officials censoring the media.

As the election looms for later this year, incidents in 2014 and in early 2015 involving the press raises serious questions on the genuineness of media freedom in Burma. The situation is alarming as the state seems to have heaped all the faults and fines on the media in the past year, which has seen a media worker being killed in October on the pretext of national security. International assistance has poured into the country to develop the media aimed at lifting and sustaining the state of media freedom. However, a viable press freedom environment seems unlikely to materialise in Burma before the end of this administration.

The media in Tripura is still dependent on the government for financial help, giving them an unprecedented upper hand to control press freedom in the state. As long as the political party in power is satisfied, the media is deemed to be okay otherwise there is an incredible pressure on the journalists as they have to not only endure insults but also face demotion in rank as well as being refused accreditation. – See more at: https://samsn.ifj.org/media-in-north-eastern-state-of-tripura/#sthash.0GypROMb.dpuf

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.

There are far too many countries where news and content providers constantly face a very special and formidable form of censorship, one exercised in the name of religion or even God. And with increasing frequency, this desire to thwart freedom of information invokes the hard-to-define and very subjective concept of the “feelings of believers.”

From August 28 to October 15, 2014, PEN American Center carried out an international survey of writers1 , to investigate how government surveillance influences their thinking, research, and writing, as well as their views of government surveillance by the U.S. and its impact around the world.

Legal regulation in the field of freedom of expression became more stringent as a result of abrupt introduction of amendments to the already undemocratic law ‘On Mass Media’ in December 2014.

Global press freedom has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade, according to the latest edition of Freedom House’s press freedom survey. The decline was driven in part by major regression in several Middle Eastern states, including Egypt, Libya, and Jordan; marked setbacks in Turkey, Ukraine, and a number of countries in East Africa; and deterioration in the relatively open media environment of the United States.

This legal analysis examines the compliance of the 2014 News Media Law of Myanmar with international standards on freedom of expression and media freedom.

Political intolerance, activities of fundamentalists and drug trafficking groups, government impunity, and the continued existence and application of repressive speech laws, continue to limit FoE rights in many countries of the region.

The 100-page report shows that Tibetan refugee communities in Nepal are now facing a de facto ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali security forces.

IFJ’s report documents the continued deterioration of press freedoms in Mainland China, as well as Hong Kong and Macau. It takes its title in direct response to Chinese authorities adopting more repressive measures in 2013 reminiscent of the Mao era four decades ago, including direct censorship, Internet surveillance, abuse of legal process, harassment and intimidation, and televised confessions of journalists and bloggers without trial.

Hungary’s independent media today faces creeping strangulation. State capture of Hungarian media is unfolding slowly but surely, principally through the “soft censor- ship” of financial incentives and influence that affect media outlets’ editorial content and economic viability.

Decade-long efforts to promote media reforms in Serbia have foundered. This report describes the mechanisms of a growing “soft censorship” that denies Serbia’s citizens their right to a free and independent media and offers recommendations that can help dismantle these insidious practices.

World Report 2014 is Human Rights Watch’s 24th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events through November 2013

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.

ARTICLE 19, Access, English PEN and PEN International welcome the opportunity to contribute to the second cycle of the UPR process of Viet Nam.

The media landscape in Burma is more open than ever, as President Thein Sein releases imprisoned journalists and abolishes the former censorship regime. But many threats and obstacles to truly unfettered reporting remain, including restrictive laws held over from the previous military regime. The wider government’s commitment to a more open reporting environment is in doubt.

Widespread self-censorship and fear of causing offence is suppressing creativity and ideas in the United Kingdom, according to a conference report published by Index on Censorship.

This report outlines steps necessary to promote adequate protections for Internet and mobile phone users in Burma, and ways to foster responsible investment in Burma’s telecom sector

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

Contribution to the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism, 17th session of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Homosexual propaganda bans, freedom of expression and equality

CPJ’s analysis identifies Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Iran as worst