Safety of Journalists CFOM Sheffield

Indonesian double standards over press freedom endanger safety of Papuan journalists

David Robie

Media Asia, volume 44, issue 1 (2017), pp. 40-47

"The World Press Freedom Day celebration in Jakarta was a milestone for Indonesia’s democratic progress, but it was also remarkable for the silence around gross violations in the country’s Papuan provinces, writes David Robie." (Abstract)

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Journalists as Victims and Perpetrators of Violence

Matt Carlson

In: News of Baltimore: Race, Rage and the City

Linda Steiner, Silvio Waisbord (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2017), 17 pp.

"This chapter explores the complicated ways in which journalists became subjects within the stories of Ferguson and Baltimore through a particular focus on the discursive identification of journalists as either victims or perpetrators of violence. It focuses on two evaluative frameworks: journalists ... more

Australian News Photographers, Safety and Trauma

Fay Anderson

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 231-234

"This chapter illuminates new understanding about the dangers experienced by Australian news photographers on international and domestic assignments. Using oral history methodology, the interviews with 60 present and former Australian newspaper photographers revealed a litany of psychologically and ... more

The Cost of Truth Telling in India: Reporting in the Context of Intolerance

Pradip Ninan Thomas

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 87-92

"I would like to begin by stating the obvious. Any way forward has to be based on a clear understanding of the possibilities for change in the environment and context of the press in India. While there is a lot to celebrate about the press in India, its institutional location within the market, its ... more

Attacks on the Record: The State of Global Press Freedom 2017-2018

Freedom House (2017), 7 pp.

"Press freedom is facing new threats in major democracies as well as in repressive states, where authorities are focusing their efforts on social media and other online platforms after subduing the independence of major print and broadcast outlets. The analysis below—drawn from the findings of Fre ... more

A Story Bigger than Your Life? The safety challenges of journalists reporting on democratization conflicts

Judith Lohner, Sandra Banjac

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 289-302

"This chapter investigates safety challenges journalists face when reporting on democratization conflicts and their impact on journalistic work. It builds on a comparative case study within the EU-funded project “Media, Conflict and Democratisation” (MeCoDEM), which explores journalistic work pr ... more

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Assessing Indonesian journalist threats: Cases, actors and motives

Masduki

Media Asia, volume 44, issue 1 (2017), pp. 25-32

"This paper serves as a review of crimes committed against journalist in Indonesia within the past six years (2010–2015). This work draws primarily on the annual reports made by the Alliance of Independence Journalist (AJI), the prominent association of journalists in Indonesia. The first part int ... more

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The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression: Words of Introduction

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 11-20

"People who exercise their right to freedom of expression through journalism should be able to practice their work without restrictions. They are, nonetheless, the constant targets of violence and threats. In an era of globalization and digitization, no single party can alone carry the responsibilit ... more

What’s Wrong with War Journalism? Why and how legal aspects of conflicts need better reporting

Stig A. Nohrstedt, Rune Ottosen

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 241-254

"This chapter deals with whether war journalism in mainstream media is fit to take a fourth estate role in reporting the new wars, from the end of the Cold War in 1989 to the present war against the so-called Islamic State. In particular, it is a critical study of shortcomings when it comes to provi ... more

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Trouble in paradise? Self-censorship, outside interference and harassment of journalists in Finland

Ilmari Hiltunen

Media Asia, volume 44, issue 1 (2017), pp. 66-70

"Contrary to popular belief, being at or near the top of media freedom rankings doesn’t mean a country is free from interference and threats to journalists’ safety, Ilmari Hiltunen observes. When talking about censorship and journalism the attention has usually been focused on explicit violence ... more

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Journalism after jail: Coping with the trauma of imprisonment

Eric Freedman

Media Asia, volume 44 (2017), pp. 21-24

"Journalists continue to face imprisonment for practicing their profession in ways that antagonize regimes, militaries, oligarchs, and other powerful interests. What do journalists do after their release from prison? Do they resume their professional work in their home country or in exile? How do th ... more

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The exposure to traumatic events and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder among Korean journalists

Mina Lee, Eun Hye Ha, Jung Kun Pae

Journalism, volume 19, issue 9-10 (2017), pp. 1308-1325

"This study investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms on Korean journalists and the contributing variables. Predicting variables included the exposure to traumatic events, coping strategy, social support, optimism, negative beliefs, and the journalists’ occupational perspectives. ... more

The Dangers of Sports Journalism

Kristen Sparre

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 205-220

"According to The Committee to Protect Journalists, 2 per cent of all journalists killed since 1992 worked on the sports beat. At present, however, we have limited knowledge of the specific dangers faced by sports journalists. This chapter presents findings from exploratory research on 78 reports of ... more

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Fearing the Majority: Catholic Media in Muslim Indonesia

Wijayanto

Media Asia, volume 44, issue 1 (2017), pp. 33-39

"It was 16 June 2016, during the fasting month of Ramadhan. Inside the Kompas newsroom, tens of uninvited guests, mostly wearing white, were visiting the office of the media group. They were members of Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a hardline Islamic group well known for its sporadic sweeping of In ... donesia, mostly in the name of defending Syaria law. Two days before, a letter had been sent to Kompas newsroom from the FPI, saying they wanted to seek clarification about some of the paper’s coverage. That night, one of the journalists said to me with a bitter smile, “This is a special exception where a guest determined the date and time of the visit without waiting for approval.” As planned, around 1 pm on June 16, those special guests were seated in one of the newspaper’s conference rooms, welcomed by chief editor of Kompas daily newspaper, Budiman Tanuredjo, as well as some other chiefs of the media group from Kompas.TV and Kompas.com. In a video that went viral on YouTube, people could see that the discussion was rather one-sided. The FPI members spoke while the journalist were mostly listening to them. Munarman, the FPI’s spokesperson, accused the media group of unfairly covering recent events. He highlighted the news about the latest swoop in Serang Regency, which caught a middle-aged woman, Saeni, selling food during the day during the fasting month. It was carried out by Satpol PP, the municipal police of the local government specifically functions as public order enforcers. Munarman believed that the raid was virtuous, to enforce Syaria law. He said Kompas had reported the news in a way that portrayed Saeni as a victim and the Satpol PP as the aggressor. Thus, in the view of FPI, Kompas had hurt the feeling of Muslim people. They demanded the coverage to be stopped. They also warned the news organization to never again do such reportage. The FPI members did not stop there. Munarman and other FPI members also incited violence. In an aggressive tone, Munarman warned that such coverage could provoke a repeat of the incidents of 1998. This was a reference to the mass riots in the days before the forced resignation of President Suharto on 21 May 1998. The riot involved ethnic violence against the Chinese minority. Thousands of stores owned by Chinese Indonesians were destroyed, robbed and burnt. Furthermore, tens of Chinese women were sexually abused. There is still ongoing debate about the underlying reasons why the Chinese were targeted, but one theory suggests that it was part of a regime strategy to channel public anger away from President Suharto. Interestingly, despite believing that Kompas was not wrong in a journalistic sense, their journalists responded to the accusations with submission. Responding with smile and a lower tone, Budiman Tanuredjo said, “If we were seen as already crossing the boundaries (kebablasan), please kindly let us know” (Budiman Tanuredjo, 23 June 2016). In the same vein, the journalists from Kompas TV responded that “we were advised that we might have crossed the boundaries in our way, our news routine, we really make it as a lesson”. The other senior journalists who acted as a spokesperson of the media said, “Thank you for your reminder.” Instead of arguing that they were acting according to their journalistic judgment, they decided to admit that they were wrong and apologise to the hardliners. The submissiveness of Kompas becomes more interesting when viewed against the fact that it was not the only media to report the incident. There were at least 10 other online media that reported the raid on Saeni. Those media were Republika, SindoNews, DW, BBC, BeritaSatu, Detik, Tempo, The Jakarta Post, Media Indonesia and Viva. Republika – an Islamic newspaper – was one of the most critical of the raid, explicitly describing Saeni as a victim. On 13 June 2016, they wrote that the spokesperson of the President said that the President had given support to Saeni, “who had been the victim of Satpol PP”. The article’s title was, “Jokowi Gave Charity to a Mother Who Sold Food.” The use of the word “victim” implied that there was a perpetrator, which was the Satpol PP. Yet, FPI did not attack Republika or any other media. Only Kompas became their target. This article argues that the allegations against Kompas and its response were a result of historical factors. Kompas has been repeatedly attacked by Islamic groups due to its Catholic roots. This tendency is exacerbated by the fact that existing blasphemy law provides immense space to prosecute anyone deemed to be offending the feelings of religious believers. Kompas journalists end up internalizing a belief that being minority Catholic is an “original sin” in a majority Muslim country." (pp.33-34) more

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Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs, and an Increasingly Perilous Future

Maria Armoudian

London; New York: Routledge (2017), 165 pp.

"Journalism is a dangerous business when one’s "beat" is a war zone. Armoudian reveals the complications facing frontline journalists who cover warzones, hot spots and other hazardous situations. It compares yesterday’s conflict journalism, which was fraught with its own dangers, with today’s ... more

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Shooting the messengers

Steven M. Ellis

British Journalism Review, volume 28, issue 1 (2017), pp. 57-62

"More and more countries are deciding the answer to a bad press is to imprison journalists who dare to report anything that is critical." (Abstract)

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Journalists and Safety Training: Experiences and Opinions

Autumn Slaughter, Bradley Brummel, Susan Drevo, Elana Newman et al.

Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma; Trauma Research Lab University of Tulsa (2017), 57 pp.

"The report, based on answers from 247 respondents, summarises the ‘good news’, that journalists do implement changes in their behaviour when they have attended safety trainings, and the gaps and challenges, including the fact that few journalists keep their training up to date in spite of indus ... more