Digital development in focus for World Press Freedom Day 2022

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 02/05/2022

More than five in six people around the world live in a country that experienced a decline in press freedom over the past five years. Some 400 journalists were killed during the same period just for doing their jobs. Digital technologies are further revolutionizing this landscape, UNESCO director general Audrey Azoulay says in a statement prior to the World Press Freedom Day that is celebrated annually on May 3.

“But we all must do more to address the risks and seize the opportunities of the digital age”, she says.

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a recommendation by UNESCO.

This year’s theme is “Journalism Under Digital Siege”, which to a tech-oriented reader sounds like indicating “digital” is all threat and perhaps forgetting how software development, artificial intelligence etc have meant an important development of investigative journalism with journalists working in global teams to show, for instance, how business and political decision makers hide huge and undeclared assets.

However, it is true that the “digital” has also meant increased surveillance of journalists and human rights activists with the help of spy software and online threats.

Azoulay in her statement stresses that ”the advent of online platforms has called into question the economic viability of independent and pluralistic media, upending existing value chains and business models.”

“The digital era has also put media workers and their sources at greater risk of being targeted, harassed and attacked – for instance, due to data retention, spyware and digital surveillance. Expressions of hatred against journalists have spiralled, affecting women journalists in particular. Our research shows that more than seven out of ten women reporters surveyed have experienced online violence.”

”On this World Press Freedom Day, I invite Member States, technology companies, the media community, as well as the rest of civil society to come together to develop a new digital configuration – one that protects both journalism and journalists”, Azoulay says.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) has been named as the laureate of the 2022 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, following the recommendation of the International Jury of media professionals.

Police raided the organisation’s office in August 2021 and The Supreme Court of Belarus ordered the dissolution of the organization. All actions seen as authorities’ attempt to silence criticism of the election 2020 that resulted in the questioned re-election of Alexandr Lukasjenko as the country’s president.

The International Press Institute (IPI) has joined the partner organisations of the Council of Europe’s Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists in publishing the 2022 annual report, which identifies growing challenges for media freedom across the region.

”While European countries still pack the first ranks in press freedom indexes, the report finds, red lights are flashing. In 2021, 282 alerts from 35 countries have been submitted to the Platform, up from 200 in 2020, an increase of 41%”, IPI said.

“The report was finalised in the shadow of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which has led to serious attacks and killing of journalists in Ukraine, as well as blanket state censorship of all truthful reporting about the war in Russia.”

The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists says the war in Ukraine takes a rising toll on reporters and media. Ukraine CPJ has confirmed that at least seven journalists have died while covering the war and is investigating whether others were killed because of their work. Most recently, RFE/RL producer Vira Hyrych was killed when Russian shelling hit her apartment building in Kyiv on April 28, CPJ says.