Imagine a newsroom without women, where all staff, without exception, are men. Now imagine all newsrooms in an entire nation with men only, across all jobs, from the reporters, to the technicians, to the editing staff and managers. This threatens to be the future of...
The swift takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban following the withdrawal of foreign forces has shocked and appalled human rights defenders. It has led to wholesale urgent calls to assist Afghans – particularly women, journalists, and those who have worked for or aided humanitarian aid organisations...
By targeting monuments that celebrate historic figures who actively contributed to institutional racism and the oppression of marginalised peoples, Black Lives Matter and others have implicitly questioned the way collective memory is fashioned. Protests of this kind are an effective communication strategy for challenging political, social,...
“The dominant forms and uses of digital technologies and the Internet endanger democracy. They undermine the indispensable resources of trusted information, in-depth analysis, rational debate, and diversity of representation that allow us to fully understand the challenges we face.” To tackle these limitations, a coalition of...
The 2021 Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute points to some promising findings for those who value independent and reliable news. The Covid-19 pandemic appears to have increased trust in mainstream news – at least back to 2018 levels. Three quarters of the survey...
Since April 28, Colombia has seen an unprecedented wave of demonstrations against various government policies. What started as a national strike against a tax reform bill led by students and labour unions has developed into an ongoing series of protests. Most have been peaceful, but...
Reporters Without Borders has underlined growing concerns about a steady decline of press freedom in several European Union member states, including Greece, Malta, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia. In “‘Worrying picture’: Journalists in Europe face increasing risk, press freedom group warns” (The Guardian, 14 April 2021),...
The tech headlines in the past week have marked the growing data privacy battle between Apple and Facebook. The latest update to iPads and iPhones includes an App Tracking Transparency feature which will force app developers to ask users permission to collect their data. This...
Do current shifts in economic thinking represent an opportunity for communication rights? On April 5th, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen issued a call for a global corporate tax rate, a major shift from the neoliberal consensus that has governed the global economy since...
The theme of WACC’s annual report for 2020 is “Truthful Voices Matter”. What appears to be self-evident reflects a growing perception that public interest media need to rebuild trust in their news content and opinions: by demonstrating impartiality, balance, and transparency. Why is trust eroding, how...