Since the emergence of the communication rights movements in the 1980s, activists have advanced a vision of the right to communicate as a highly political enterprise. The main idea at the heart of the movement has always been that democratizing media and communication is a way to transform power structures in favour of the public interest and of people and communities whose concerns and stories are rarely seen and heard.
05 October, 2020
Public interest journalism addresses the needs of citizens in a democratic community.
Journalism that serves the public interest acknowledges that citizens are able to comprehend the policies and decisions that affect them. It assumes they are capable of applying their experience and values to arguments presented to them and of acting in ways that can make a positive difference to the world around them.
28 September, 2020
Once used mainly by teens and young millennials, Instagram continues to grow as one of the most popular social media platforms.
As of June 2018, Instagram had reached one billion monthly active users. More than 500 million use the platform daily.
21 September, 2020
Free Press and four allies have filed a lawsuit (27 August 2020) challenging an order against social media companies.
The US District Court, Northern District of California, will hear a complaint against President Trump’s “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship”, which targets online platforms with a range of official reprisals – including threats to their established legal immunity, investigation by government enforcement agencies, and the loss of significant government spending – for engaging in constitutionally protected speech, including combating misinformation online.
14 September, 2020
How can news organizations practice diversity and how can newsmakers contribute to overcoming division and exclusion?
A digital panel session discussed these questions as...
07 September, 2020
Media freedom is the freedom to protest.
“Hong Kong has long been respected as a powerful global economic hub and lively political and democratic space, supported by a proud and strong independent media. Yet the imposition of the new national security law… has undermined fundamental rights and freedom of expression… and severely damages Hong Kong’s autonomy,” says a statement published by the International Federation of Journalists on 19 August 2020. It was signed by eight leading organisations supporting media freedom.
31 August, 2020
A new law in Tanzania tightens controls on cooperation between local and international media outlets.
Under new regulations announced by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, which came into force on 10 August 2020, local media must now seek government permission to broadcast foreign content. They will be responsible for any perceived “offence” contained in that content.
24 August, 2020
There are laws about what can be seen or said in public. So why don’t they apply to social media?
In principle they do. The problem is enforcing them. In part it’s a problem of scale.
17 August, 2020
There is nothing new about hate speech. What has changed is the mode of delivery.
In Nazi Germany, it was state-controlled newspapers and radio. At the time of the genocide in Rwanda, it was a radio station run by the Hutu government. Today, it is social media, until recently largely unregulated.
10 August, 2020
Last year the South African president elevated the epidemic of violence against women to national crisis level following pressure from activists, promising to put in place a public national register of offenders, a review of cold cases and harsher penalties for perpetrators.
03 August, 2020
No apologies for quoting at length from “
The Media Isn’t Ready to Cover Climate Apartheid” by Michelle García (The Nation, 17 June 2020).
While praising the public service ethic of many media outlets, whose coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has been exemplary, she notes an apparent reticence or inability to delve in depth into its impact on the most marginalized. She also questions media preparedness for the greater crisis to follow:
27 July, 2020
[caption id="attachment_26456" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Image: United Nations COVID-19 response[/caption]
In times of disaster, the need to engage with affected communities to ensure useful, timely and accurate information is mutually shared is increasingly recognised as essential.
20 July, 2020
