Lies, damned lies, and the state capture of Polish public television

On a snowy February 2019 evening over 150 demonstrators gathered in front of the public television (TVP) building in the centre of Warsaw. We shouted “Shame!”, “Employ journalists!”, and “TVP lies!”. The old theme tune of communist era TV news blared out of loudspeakers as an accompaniment to the protest. A squad of police officers had cordoned off the entrance to the building and was escorting TVP employees as they came out through the angry crowd.

Japan’s blurred vision of media freedom

New research and analysis supports the UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye’s findings from his 2017 Japan report and presents fresh cases pointing to need for remedial actions by the Japanese government.

Fake news has always existed, but quality journalism has a history of survival

Professor Jackie Harrison, CFOM Chair, writes about the long history of media manipulation and fake news, and the staying power of quality journalism. This piece for The Conversation, published on the World Press Freedom Day 2018, marks also the UNESCO announcement for Jackie Harrison, who has been awarded a prestigious new UNESCO Chair in Media Freedom, Journalism Safety and the Issue of Impunity.

Can a Free Press Survive in Russia? The scorecard so far

In 2017 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation handed down an exceptionally important decision. It struck down a series of previous convictions handed down against Elena Nadtoka, the editor of a local newspaper in the Rostov Region, and instructed the local courts concerned to reverse their verdicts. The move followed a final ruling from the European Court of Human Rights on what was seen as a crucial test case in the struggle for survival of free media in Russia.

Ahed Tamimi: father speaks of his pride as Palestinian activist prepares for trial

Emma Heywood, a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Journalism Studies, wrote this article which has been published on The Conversation based on her first-hand experience of life in the West Bank, where her research is focused on the role of local radio in NGO activities in war-affected zones.

Wanted: clear criteria for news organisations when dealing with hate speech and extremist content

There are clear signs that hate speech is on the increase, often turbo charged by social media. The London Bridge attacks in July triggered a big spike in hate crimes with a significant amount of them being attacks in the street directed at British Muslims, the Guardian reported. Figures released by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, showed a fivefold increase in Islamophobic attacks since the atrocity at London Bridge, and a 40% increase in racist incidents, compared with the daily average this year.

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