journalists
Why press freedom matters
In 1991, a group of African newspaper journalists came together in the capital of Namibia to issue the Windhoek Declaration, which asserted that, “[t]he establishment, maintenance and fostering of an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy in a nation, and for economic development.” The date of the Declaration's adoption, May 3, was subsequently declared as World Press Freedom Day, that was observed in Bangladesh as well as around the world this past week.
Freedom of expression and access to factual and accurate information provided by independent media are foundational to democratic societies. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedom of expression includes the right of all individuals “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Yet the outlook today for the rights of journalists around the world remains grim.
Also read: Bangladesh drops one notch in World Press Freedom Index
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that in 2020, the number of journalists killed in retaliation for their reporting more than doubled, with Mexico and Afghanistan seeing the largest number of killings. According to CPJ, the number of journalists jailed for their reporting in 2020 reached its highest level since the organisation began keeping track, with China, Turkey, and Egypt imprisoning the most reporters last year. Unfortunately, the pandemic has provided a pretext for repressive governments to intensify pressure on independent media. It is exactly in that kind of hostile environment that the exercise of freedom of expression, especially by members of the press, becomes even more crucial in alerting the public to abuses and corruption and in countering dangerous misinformation and disinformation.
At least 247 journalists were reportedly subjected to attacks, harassment, and intimidation in 2020. More than 900 cases were filed under the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) with nearly 1,000 people charged and 353 detained – many of them journalists. The DSA continues to be used to harass and indefinitely detain journalists, activists and others, resulting in a chilling effect on expression of dissent. In such a situation, it is perhaps not surprising that Bangladesh has slipped one notch in this year's World Press Freedom Index, by Reporters Without Borders, also known as Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF). The country was ranked 152nd out of 180 countries while its position was 151st last year. Even within South Asia, a region that has grown particularly notable for its growing curbs on press freedom, Bangladesh ranked last, behind countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Also read: CPJ names Shahidul Alam among four for Int’l Press Freedom Awards 2020
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists and media workers have been on the front lines to keep the public informed, at significant risk to their own health. Till April, 48 Bangladeshi journalists had died of the virus, one of the highest tallies in the world. Yet they must remain relentless in their quest to uncover the truth, for any society that fails to appreciate their worth can only be poorer for it.
Covid-19: PM Hasina provides Tk 10cr for journalists
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday (April 27, 2021) donated Tk 10 crore for providing assistance to the country’s journalists during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Prime Minister has donated Tk 10 crore to Bangladesh Journalists’ Welfare Trust for extending assistance to journalists across the country at this tough time of Covid-19 pandemic,” PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told UNB.
Read OCAB forms new convening committee
Also read Govt, WB ink $250 mn deal to help Bangladesh create more jobs
OCAB forms new convening committee
A new convening committee of the Overseas Correspondents Association Bangladesh (OCAB), a platform of Dhaka-based journalists working for foreign media outlets, was announced on Saturday (April 24, 2021).
The nine-member committee, headed by BBC’s Correspondent Qadir Kallol, will be working to hold a new election within six months (minimum). Germany’s news agency DPA’s Nazrul Islam Mithu has been made Member Secretary of the committee said a press release.
The convening committee will also conduct regular activities of the prestigious organisation before holding a new election.
The committee was formed at a virtual meeting of OCAB presided over by senior member Farid Hossain.
Read Rajshahi University journalists’ body gets new executive committee
The other members of the newly formed committee are: Zahiduzzaman Faruque, Farid Hossain, Rafiqur Rahman, Bashudeb Dhar, Shafiqul Alam, Julhas Alam and Harunur Rashid.
At the meeting, the OCAB members adopted a condolence motion on the deaths of some members of the organisation.
They extended their sympathy to the families of Hassan Shahriar, Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, Zahurul Haque, AZM Anas and others.
Read Commerce minister asks journalists to bring up development challenges accurately
The meeting also congratulated OCAB member Pavel Rahman on being awarded with Ekushey Padak this year.
The meeting also provided membership to 11 Dhaka-based journalists working for foreign media.
OCAB members Zahiduzzman Faruque, Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Pavel Rahman, Amir Khasru, Nizamuddin Ahmed, Bashudeb Dhar, Waliur Rahman Miraj and Anisur Rahman, among others, attended the meeting.
Read Efforts to be accelerated to support journalists: Planning Minister
Watchdog: Media freedom has deteriorated during pandemic
There’s been a “dramatic deterioration” of press freedom since the pandemic started to tear across the world, Reporters Without Borders said in its annual report published Tuesday.
The group’s new World Press Freedom Index, which evaluated the press situations in 180 countries, painted a stark picture and concluded that 73% of the world’s nations have serious issues with media freedoms.
It says countries have used the coronavirus pandemic, which erupted in China in late 2019, “as grounds to block journalists’ access to information, sources and reporting in the field.”
Also read: Media Freedom Coalition concerned over Myanmar military’s efforts to muzzle media
This is particularly the case in Asia, the Mideast and Europe, the media group said.
“Journalism is the best vaccine against disinformation,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Unfortunately, its production and distribution are too often blocked by political, economic, technological and, sometimes, even cultural factors. In response to the virality of disinformation across borders, on digital platforms and via social media, journalism provides the most effective means of ensuring that public debate is based on a diverse range of established facts.”
Also read: Bangladesh drops one notch in World Press Freedom Index
Issues have also arisen from a drop in public trust in journalism itself. The group said 59% of people polled in 28 countries claimed that journalists “deliberately try to mislead the public by reporting information they know to be false.”
Media Freedom Coalition concerned over Myanmar military’s efforts to muzzle media
The Media Freedom Coalition have issued a statement expressing deep concern over continued efforts by the military and police to crack down on media freedom in Myanmar.
“Media freedom is a cornerstone of democratic societies. It is essential to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Access to information is vital and journalists must be free to report on the developments in the country, including the protests, without fear of reprisal or intimidation,” reads the statement issued Friday.
Independent reporting, it noted, is all the more important in the current context, helping to counter the disinformation campaigns in Myanmar, both online and offline, and to provide the public with factual accounts of events taking place in the country.
“The importance of the work of journalists, particularly in remote areas, cannot be underestimated,” it said.
Members of the coalition who signed the statement are: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States.
The statement noted that since the Feb 1 military coup, attacks against media professionals by the security forces and their offices have increased significantly. At least 60 journalists have reportedly been detained and some of these now also face charges.
Licences of five news organisations have been revoked by the military and access to local and international news networks have been suspended. The military imposed “draconian measures that repress free speech and the diffusion of reliable and verified information”.
Internet shutdowns have also been used to restrict news coverage, communications and access to information, the statement noted.
“We strongly condemn the military coup and the ongoing violence and call for the restoration of Myanmar’s democratically elected government and parliamentary assemblies elected in November 2020,” the Coalition said.
It called on the military to “immediately and unconditionally” cease attacks on, and intimidation and harassment of, journalists and media workers, and to release all those who have been arbitrarily detained.
“We call for the perpetrators of violations and abuses, including attacks on journalists and media workers, to be held accountable,” the coalition said.
It demanded the military to respect the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, refrain from the use of force, and respect the media’s freedom to report protests independently, safely and without fear of violence or arbitrary detention.
“We call for the end of all Internet restrictions in Myanmar that suppress media freedom and violate the right to freedom of expression, including freedom to seek, receive, and impart information,” the statement said.
Also read: End assault on media freedom, Fortify Rights to Myanmar
Study finds people want more than watchdogs for journalists
A study of the public’s attitude toward the press reveals that distrust goes deeper than partisanship and down to how journalists define their very mission.
In short: Americans want more than a watchdog.
The study, released Wednesday by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, suggests ways that news organizations can reach people they may be turning off now.
“In some ways, this study suggests that our job is broader and bigger than we’ve defined it,” said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute.
The study defines five core principles or beliefs that drive most journalists: keep watch on public officials and the powerful; amplify voices that often go unheard; society works better with information out in the open; the more facts people have the closer they will get to the truth; and it’s necessary to spotlight a community’s problems to solve them.
Yet the survey, which asked non-journalists a series of questions designed to measure support for each of those ideas, found unqualified majority support for only one of them. Two-thirds of those surveyed fully supported the fact-finding mission.
Half of the public embraced the principle that it’s important for the media to give a voice to the less powerful, according to the survey, and slightly less than half fully supported the roles of oversight and promoting transparency.
Less than a third of the respondents agreed completely with the idea that it’s important to aggressively point out problems. Only 11% of the public, most of them liberals, offered full support to all five ideas.
“I do believe they should be a watchdog on the government, but I don’t think they should lean either way,” said Annabell Hawkins, 41, a stay-at-home mother from Lawton, Oklahoma. “When I grew up watching the news it seemed pretty neutral. You’d get either side. But now it doesn’t seem like that.”
Hawkins said she believed the news media spent far too much time criticizing former President Donald Trump and rarely gave him credit for anything good he did while in office.
“I just want the facts about what happened so I can make up my own mind,” said Patrick Gideons, a 64-year-old former petroleum industry supervisor who lives south of Houston. He lacks faith in the news media because he believes it offers too much opinion.
Gideons, though, said he gets most of his news through social media, which is skilled in directing followers toward beliefs they are comfortable with. He said he knows only one person who subscribes to a newspaper anymore — his 91-year-old father.
Polls show how the public’s attitude toward the press has soured over the past 50 years and, in this century, how it has become much more partisan. In 2000, a Gallup poll found 53% of Democrats said they trusted the media, compared with 47% of Republicans. In the last full year of the Trump presidency, Gallup found trust went up to 73% among Democrats and plunged to 10% among Republicans.
The survey’s findings point to some ways news organizations can combat the negativity.
Half a century ago, when newspapers were flourishing and before the internet and cable television led to an explosion in opinionated news, the public’s view of the role of journalists was more compatible to how journalists viewed the job themselves, Rosenstiel said.
“We were the tough guys, we were the cops,” he said.
The study indicates now that consumers are interested in news that highlights potential solutions to problems and want to hear about things that are working, he said.
“We tend to think that stories that celebrate the good things in society are soft stories, kind of wimpy,” he said. “But they may be more important than we think in providing a full and accurate picture of the world.”
People who put greater emphasis on loyalty and authority tend to be more skeptical of the core values that journalists try to uphold, as opposed to those who give greater weight to fairness, the study found. Changes in the way a story is framed can make it more widely appealing to different audiences.
In one example, researchers took a story about a canceled recreation center project in a low-income neighborhood and emphasized the element, less prominent in the original story, that the parks director had diverted funds designated for the project by the city’s mayor. The change led to the story being seen as more trusted and appealing by a broader set of the public, especially those made who place value in authority.
The nationwide survey was conducted with 2,727 adults in the fall of 2019, with a second set of interviews done last August with 1,155 people who had completed the first survey.
The study found that majorities of Americans believe that the media doesn’t care about them and tries to cover up its mistakes. Despite the negativity, Rosenstiel said he believes there’s room for both sides to come to a better understanding of each other.
Believe it or not, most journalists are pretty sincere, said Rosenstiel, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.
“Regular people should note that when journalists say they are just doing their job, they actually mean that,” he said, “because they define their job a certain way. They’re not lying. They really don’t think of themselves as secret agents of the Democratic Party. They have these set of principles that they think they’re upholding.”
Journalists’ group: 65 media workers killed in 2020
A total of 65 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2020 while doing their jobs, according to the International Federation of Journalists.
Editors' Council calls for immediate review of DSA
The Editors' Council on Saturday demanded an immediate review of the Digital Security Act (DSA) in line with the law minister's statement.
Efforts to be accelerated to support journalists: Planning Minister
Planning Minister MA Mannan on Wednesday said the government will accelerate its efforts to support journalists and ensure the security of their lives.
Rajshahi University journalists’ body gets new executive committee
The 15-member executive committee of Rajshahi University Journalist Association (Ruja) has been formed for the next one year.