World Press Freedom Research Articles

Press Insecurity during Anglophone War Coverage in Cameroon: Ways to Protect Marginalized Journalists

As the global media community prepares for World Press Freedom Day 2025 culminating and the Academic Conference on Safety of Journalists, attacks on journalists and the profession are diversified as never before. Military regimes and democratic governments prevent journalists from accessing and reporting news correctly. That scenario exists in the Republic of Cameroon (aka LRC), where some eight million predominantly English-speaking people in Cameroon and abroad struggle for recognition as a separate nation from the Republic of Cameroon. The struggle has been disfigured by misinformation on social media platforms, unreliable reporting of the crises, and journalists having limited access to news and information sources. LRC’s military and pro-independence fighters often prevent journalists from reaching affected groups, particularly refugee inhabitants facing inhumane treatment by the military, thus possibly fearing backlashes from government officials, human rights advocates, the United Nations Human Rights Council, pro-independence groups, and Free Press Unlimited.Using straw polls, email surveys, and telephonic surveys carried out periodically between January 2022 and March 2024 on news reporters and journalists serving four independent newspapers in the Anglophone region, this presentation shall highlight newsgathering and reporting practices during the war. This paper offers possible solutions for the gridlock inter-alia: (i) ways of re-establishing integrity in journalism as a credible news bank and (ii) how journalists in nations excluded from mainstream social, economic, educational, and cultural life should be protected against punitive activities facilitated by international partners, particularly donors.

COVID-19 vaccines and vaccinations coverage on news portals: Framing, Tone, and Source Analysis

A comparative quantitative content analysis was adopted to explore the frames, tones, and information sources for the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination in four countries in Africa. The news portals and countries for this study were purposively sampled based on the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders for 2021. Namibia, South Africa, Ghana, and Botswana are among the top ten countries in Africa with the best Media Freedoms. The findings showed that Ghana’s news portals’ coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination campaigns used mainly unofficial sources in the coverage of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination stories, whereas Botswana, Namibia, and South African media used official sources. Other findings show that Ghana’s news portals covered COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination stories in a negative tone and employed conflict and economic consequence frames. Botswana, Namibia, and South African news portals, however, adopted neutral and positive tones and framed them according to human interest, responsibility, and morality. The results suggest that the text of the news articles from the four African countries’ coverage of the COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination adopted different generic framing styles, and the tones were predominantly a mixture of positive, neutral, and negative.

Assessment of the level of investment attractiveness of Ukrainian economy using multidimensional average method

In the article it has been estimated the level of investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy using multidimensional average method. For this purpose, the structure of national investment attractiveness was identified and five main components that are political, economic, social, scientific, technical, natural and geographical. The political component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: world press freedom index, economic freedom index, political freedom index, and ease of doing business index. The economic component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: GDP per capita, unemployment rate and government debt in GDP. The social component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: literacy rate, Gini coefficient, happiness index. The scientific and technical component of national investment attractiveness is characterized by the following indicators: number of scientists and engineers per million people, number of technological parks in the country, the research and development (R&D) effectiveness index. The natural and geographical components of national investment attractiveness are characterized by the following indicators: size of electricity production, share of renewable resources in region electricity generation, percent of agricultural land in the country. The listed indicators were distributed on stimulants and disincentives and normalized. Results of calculations show that the level of investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy is quite low (ICIA = 0.393) and even lower than that in most analyzed countries (by 0.012 compared with Poland, by 0.023 compared with Hungary, by 0.049 compared with Romania, by 0.06 compared with Bulgaria), but it is higher than the level of investment attractiveness of Moldavian economies. The integral coefficient of investment attractiveness in Ukraine is characterized by the highest value of the general coefficient of natural resource component (GCN&G = 0.368). For comparison, in Poland, the value of that indicator equals 0.284, in Slovakia it equals 0.231, in the Czech Republic it equals 0.264. Instead, in accordance with the general coefficients of scientific and technical components, Ukraine is an outsider of Eastern Europe: GCR&D = 0.162 in Ukraine, GCR&D = 0.363 in Moldova, GCR&D = 0.401 in Slovakia, GCR&D = 0.442 in Romania. In addition, general coefficients of economic and social components are quite low (GCE = 0.435 and GСС = 0.412 accordingly) due to several institutional and financial factors, namely imperfect legal framework, low level of trust of major market participants in government, low financial literacy of population, high probability of non-repayment of loans. To raise the investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian economy, it is necessary to create new industries and markets, reform the taxation system, stabilize the banking system, improve the work of insurance companies, create institutions that would be involved in mobilizing investment resources for specific investment projects and programs.

Reporting in conflict zones: Journalistic rights violations in Yemen

This paper critically examines the challenges and dangers faced by journalists in Yemen, a nation ravaged by relentless war and strife. The analysis is rooted in in-depth remote interviews with 30 journalists currently operating in the heart of conflict regions within the country. Yemen, ranking 169th among 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, is the backdrop for a comprehensive overview of its journalistic landscape and the state of press freedom. The findings starkly expose the horrifying crimes perpetrated against these journalists by the conflicting parties: the Houthi rebels and the pro-government military forces. Journalists have become victims of grave atrocities, ranging from tragic killings and threats against their families and possessions to physical assaults and looting of their vital equipment. Despite all this, playing their crucial role as watchdogs, they bravely uncover the wrongdoings of those in positions of power. Through this study, the dire situation of those committed to journalism is brought to light, demanding the attention of the global community and various human rights organizations. Urgent action and support are essential to address their plight, acknowledging the risks they face while striving to uphold the truth and ensure accountability in a country torn by conflict.

Analyzing Conflict Reporting and Press Freedom in Pakistan: Examining Threats to Journalists' Safety in FATA Region

According to Reporters without Borders, Pakistan occupies 157th position in the World Press Freedom Index 2022 out of 180 countries. FATA is considered as the most dangerous area for the journalists in Pakistan. They face harassment, threats, threating calls, kidnaping, beating and even death. Journalists cannot report on sensitive issues in FATA region. The study strives to find out the challenges the journalists face in FATA, to know the reasons why these challenges exist and finally to find out the best possible solutions for these issues. On the pinning of the Hierarchy of Influential Model has been utilized. To address the posed research questions to examine the freedom of press, a survey was designed and reached out to the working journalists of FATA region. The results show that journalists are facing censorship and pressures from owners and different extremist groups. Majority of the journalists also receive instructions and pressures from law enforcing agencies for the favorable coverage. The study further states that journalists are not free to report the events from the war zones if it is against the law enforcing agencies.

Coverage of International News in TV News Broadcasts: The Case of the Greek Public Television

The "World Press Freedom Index" is published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and aims to compare 180 countries and territories according to the level of freedom enjoyed by journalists and the media. For 2023, Greece is in position 107 on the list, occupying the last position among the countries of the European Union. As a result of the financial and political crisis, Greek journalists and media faced a deepening lack of trust in the country (Gioltzidou, 2018). In this context, the present study attempts an in-depth study of the potentially problematic aspects of the practice of journalism in Greece, starting from the level of coverage of international news on public television. The theoretical study is based on the research of Lent (1977), who concluded that national interests, censorship (internal or external), and an increasingly shrinking body of correspondents limit international news coverage in the media. In the empirical part, the research results obtained from the study of 66 news bulletins and 1447 separate news topics on the public television ERT3 during September 2021 were presented. The central research question of the study is "What is the role and the position of international news in news bulletins in Greece in cases of global crisis?".

Pandemic, politics, and the safety of journalists: downward spiral of press freedom in India

ABSTRACT According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index rankings by the RSF, India ranks 161 out of 180 countries. One of the important indicators that the index bases the ranking on is the level of violence against the journalists and their overall safety. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government cracked down on the press by reprimanding any form of dissent regarding their policies. This has resulted in journalists from various parts of the country being arrested, detained, and harassed. The much-debated Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005 were implemented to invoke curbs to contain the spread of coronavirus in India. The paper examines the consequences of the infodemic on the safety of journalists in the context of declining press freedom in the country in the context of the aforementioned acts. The analysis of cases focuses on highlighting how the laws introduced to “contain” the spread of the virus has been used as a tool to gatekeep the truth regarding the implementation of coronavirus policies by way of stifling the voice of journalists. The analysis reveals how various legal, political, and economic factors contribute to the lack of safety of journalists in the country.

Prioritising National Competitiveness over Support for Democracy? Finnish Media Policy in the 21st Century

Ever since the launch of the World Press Freedom Index almost 20 years ago, Finland has always been among the top fi ve countries of that index. According to the annual Reuters Digital News reports, Finnish people also have the highest level of trust in the news media and one of the highest levels of press readership in the EU. Most of the media companies are doing quite well, while Google and Facebook have a much less dominant role in the advertising market than elsewhere in Europe. In this context, you might expect Finland to have a comprehensive and visionary media and communications policy to support democracy. However, our meta-study of Finnish media and communications policy based on two recent reportsto the Ministry of Transport and Communications, other earlier studies, along with official documents as well as statistical data suggests that is not the case. Our analysis shows that most decisions have been pragmatic ad hoc solutions serving economic interests rather than any specific media and communication policy goals. A closer examination also proves that Finland does not fit into the Nordic Media Welfare State model either, despite a long, shared history and cultural ties.

Fragmented and Yet Influential: MPs’ Perceptions on the Media in Latvia

Abstract More than 30 years have passed since Latvia gained its independence, however, systematic studies of present‐day relationship between media and politics are still missing. Latvia is a country where choice of media is largely determined by ethnicity. Representatives from ethnic groups acquire their daily information from different news sources, as the result the trust levels in media depend on the media format and the language of choice. This study adds to the literature by studying the perceptions of Latvian Members of Parliament on media agenda‐setting power. Drawing on surveys of Latvian parliamentarians, the agenda‐setting power of media is assessed and compared to the survey results in Finland. The results reveal that politicians in Latvia and in Finland think that, in general, media have a massive influence on politics, but the power of written press in Latvia is less evident. And although MPs acknowledge that media can have a significant influence on how decisions are made, the greatest impact will be observed during political debates that can be covered by the media. This study also demonstrates that even though Latvia scores high in the world press freedom ranks, MPs do not trust the media to a large extent and that can be a dangerous signal for the functioning of democracy. The results offer valuable information about the influence of media in countries outside Western Europe and provide a basis for further discussions on surveys as a method for studying the power of media agenda‐setting.

Theorizing Human Resource Development Practices in Extended Contexts

Mainstream human resource development (HRD) views are based on assumptions derived from organizations and societies in the western open contexts. They are inadequate and misleading in explaining the causality and regularities of HRD practices in non-mainstream closed contexts, which account for majority countries according to the 2022 World Press Freedom Index. As the fourth study in a progressive multi-stage theorizing program, we theorize HRD as multi-level and multi-context practices to decode the causality and regularities from open to closed sociopolitical contexts. We adopt an emancipatory theoretical stance to derive law-like axioms and theorems of HRD with its corresponding host system (HIS) contexts. We do so through formal and theoretical language and abstraction. We provide illustrative cases at the organizational and national levels to demonstrate the applicability of our theorizing. We further discuss implications for HRD theory, research, and practice, as well as limitations and future research directions for continued theorizing.

Exploring Social Media Knowledge as a Means for Fighting Corruption in CEE Countries

It is evidently seen that social networks are assessed widely in recent times as a means of sharing knowledge, and more importantly, resist control from influential entities compared to the regular media. Social media fight corruption by making information readily available in the form of analysis, endorsements, and through campaigns and collaboration. For this reason, some researchers are increasingly interested in how knowledge of social networks impacts our society leading to corruption reduction. In this paper, we explore the contribution of the knowledge of social media networks in reducing corruption within CEE countries. Regression analysis is employed to analyze an eighteen-year panel data (from 2002 to 2020), using secondary data from the World Bank, the World Press Freedom Index, and Transparency International of the selected CEE countries. We analyze social media variables such as social media usage, cultural tightness looseness (CTL) as independent variables and used press freedom, political stability index, and GDP per capita as control variables. Also, with corruption as a dependent variable, we used control of corruption index (CCI) and corruption perception index (CPI) to ascertain the social media network effect on corruption reduction. This article contributes to the existing knowledge by discovering the unique role that social media knowledge plays in reducing corruption in CEE countries. The result has shown that both social media usage and CTL significantly affect corruption and its reduction. In addition, it allows us to propose some practical implications for policymakers.

Avoiding Accountability

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the democratization of the former Soviet states in Central Eastern Europe, Poland’s strong economy and internal stability primed it to be a leader in the region and make it a post-communist success story – but this optimism would not last. The election of the Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość in Polish, PiS for short) in 2015 marked a significant downturn in the quality of the country’s democracy. In this paper, I examine Poland’s democratic backsliding at the hands of PiS through three of their most prominent anti-democratic actions: the decreasing freedom of the press, the erosion of judiciary independence, and the party’s increasing Euroscepticism, relying on data from international organizations such as Freedom House’s Nations in Transit and Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index to measure just how much the quality of democracy has changed in Poland. Finally, I provide a brief explanation of how Poland’s citizens have begun to resist the Law and Justice Party, proving that there is still a chance for democracy to thrive.

The rise of digital authoritarianism: Evolving threats to media and Internet freedoms in Pakistan

Digital authoritarianism poses increasing challenges within both autocratic and democratic regimes. The evolving mechanisms of digital authoritarianism surpass national boundaries. Over the past decade they have advanced the interests of authoritarian states to undermine the freedoms of media and the Internet. In competitive authoritarian regimes, like Pakistan, digital authoritarianism has paved its way under democratic disguise. Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index 2020 indicates that the country ranks at 145 out of total 178 countries. Moreover, Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net 2020 survey reveals Pakistan among the worst ten countries in terms of Internet and digital media freedoms. Considering these facts, hence this study examines digital authoritarianism in the journalistic context. It explores evolving threats to media and internet freedoms due to the increasing authoritarian practices of Pakistan’s state authorities in digital realm. This is significant so as to unpack how the country’s authorities restrain media and Internet freedoms in the digital age. To achieve this aim, this study uses the qualitative method of online interviews and presents findings thematically.

Authoritarian regimes' propensity to manipulate Covid-19 data: a statistical analysis using Benford's Law

ABSTRACT There have been numerous claims that some countries do not reveal their reported cases of COVID-19 truthfully. Some studies suggest that autocratic countries tend to manipulate their reported figures. To test these claims, the article uses Benford’s law (BL) to detect anomalies in the reported numbers of COVID-19. Many studies have used BL to test the reliability of the data recorded by countries and conclude that the data follows BL in most cases. This study applies BL to a set of 34 countries using Pearson’s χ2, Kuiper and mean absolute deviation tests to analyse the daily reported cases; then, correlating the tests results with four freedom indices using ordinary least square. The aim of the article is to demonstrate how countries with low freedom scores are likely to manipulate their COVID-19 reporting, whereas countries with high freedom scores do not show a manipulation in their data. The study finds that all indices show strong correlation to the degree of data manipulation, and with the World Press Freedom index showing the strongest relationship.

An Empirical View of Business Ethics on Press Freedom: A Case Study

Press freedom in Malaysia is bound under several regulations and restrictions ever since Malaysia granted independence in 1957. Due to this, a few media and press laws were also inadvertently inherited from the draconian colonial law or introduced in controlling any extremist actions during emergency periods and also used in silencing any political rivals. Based on the report compiled by Reporters without Borders (RSF), Malaysia jumped 22 places to 101st of the World Press Freedom Index in 2020, better than all of our South East Asian neighbouring countries. The success of Malaysia freedom movement triggered by the reformation of a few media institutions, laws and practices throughout the year. The enhancement of Malaysia press freedom assisted in the development of the country and led the nation in becoming more progressive and transparent alongside other developing nations worldwide. In this research, few case studies were conducted at one of a privately-owned media organization headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is aimed to analyse the ethical issues about business ethics involving informal interviewing methods performed towards internal staff. The case recorded will then be categorized into four different setups. Each case from each category analysed will discuss, in detail, the business ethic concept and ethical principles. In this study, the discussion aims to strengthen moral values and business ethics that has implemented in the media industry sector in Malaysia.

COVID-19 and the Media: A Pandemic of Paradoxes

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, amid collapsing revenues and a rising torrent of online misinformation and gender-based hate speech, States have a human rights-based obligation to ensure the survival of public interest media, most urgently through subsidies that can be funded by proper taxation of multinational tech companies. That is the leading conclusion of a new report by International Media Support (IMS), which assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operation of the global media sector. Drawing on reports from over 30 IMS partners worldwide, on surveys conducted by international journalism watchdogs through 2020, and supported by in-depth interviews with eight journalists working in public interest media in select IMS partner countries, this report provides comprehensive insight into what it terms ‘a pandemic of paradoxes’. The paper was launched at the opening of the academic conference of UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day 2021.

Fake News and the Business of COVID – 19: Mis-Information, Dis-Information and Mal-Information in On-line News Sources in Nigeria

The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has been described as the defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest challenge humanity has faced since World War Two. Since its emergence in Asia late last year, the virus has spread to every continent except Antarctica. Cases are rising daily in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Yet understanding this human pandemic has continued to be from a diffused point. However, since the outbreak of COVID 19/Corona Virus in December 2019, various explanations have been presented for its appearance, insurgence and continuity. The virus outbreak which was initially restricted in outbreak to Wuhan in China has become pandemic, as it has spread to almost all the countries of the world. Currently it has affected a total of 212 countries and territories in the world. There have been seemingly the same explanations for the outbreak across the world. It is believed to be the rich man's affliction by the poor and those who do not have access to overseas travel. Hence this paper discussed Fake News and the Business ofCovid-19: Mis-information, Dis-information and Mal-information in on-line News Sources in Nigeria. Premised on two objectives, the authors upon further categorization, used the 3 classifications of fake news, which were adopted as units of analysis and content categories for in depth qualitative content analysis. The news articles selected for analysis were selected from the opera news application for mobile (android) phones. With the absence of stable electricity and the increasing use of smartphones by majority of Nigerians, it is only fitting that the quickest way of accessing information is through mobile smartphones. The opera news application is currently one of the top ten applications downloaded by Nigerians on their mobile phones. Upon its arrival into the Nigerian mobile app market in January 2018, it became the most downloaded mobile application by February 2018. A total of ten news reports were selected in line with the content categories as determined in this paper. In the category of Mis-information, two news stories were selected for analyses, for dis- information, four news stories were considered while in the category of mal-information, four news stories were selected. The paper concluded and recommended that it is, however, especially at this time marking the world press freedom day, that journalists, whatever their description, should practice responsible journalism to avoid the "Sword of the Damocles.”

U.S. foreign policy interests and themes about India in the U.S. press after the Cold War

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study researched portrayal of India in the U.S. press after the Cold War. It studied whether the U.S. media portrayed India in accordance with policy stances of the U.S. government. To do so, this study took into account 143 stories about India from The New York Times and uncovered qualitative themes about India from the news stories. The research used Indexing theory. The study found that common themes about India in the U.S. press were supportive of India and that the press portrayal was consistent with U.S. policy stance on India after the Cold War. The study concluded that Indexing theory finds support from this study. Findings of the study have ramifications for press-state relations in the U.S., because in 2019 the United States was ranked only 48th in the World Press Freedom Index.

Responsible Investment Issues in Special Economic Zone Investment in Mainland Southeast Asia

Responsible Investment Issues in Special Economic Zone Investment in Mainland Southeast Asia

Comparing Chinese and EU Soft Power: The Credibility Factor

This paper presents arguments to evaluate soft power as perceived by the European Union (EU) and by China. Since the presentation of Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power, it has become apparent that notions of audience and message reception are important. We will further argue for the relevance of the psychological idea of dissonance. We will compare and contrast soft power discourses for their alignment with reality, and assess them for discrepancy. Ultimately, we will conclude that such contradictions exist and create a “dissonance” or disjunction, which we will explore in relation to the concept of credibility. In the second section, an analysis of China’s soft power serves to highlight the effects of the implementation by a “hard” state, in a centralized and controlled manner, of a soft power policy. We will examine tables in an effort to extend our comparison beyond the discourses perpetuated and promoted by both China and the EU. We will challenge these discourses using indices, including the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, the Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, as well as The Good Country Index, The Soft Power 30, and the World Justice Index, each representing a component of soft power as proposed by Nye, i.e., culture, political values and foreign policy. Additionally, we will closely examine social questions to better develop our understanding of soft power policy. Results indicate that while credibility appears more important to China than to the EU, it is, nonetheless, a central tenet for both parties. The third section takes a comparative approach to its discussion of the normative power of European and Chinese soft power. It reveals contradictions within the policies of both political bodies, and simultaneously draws two conclusions. First, that a “cultural fool” does not exist, i.e., individuals are able to decipher and understand messages. Secondly, that individuals attribute credibility or unreliability to policy messages framed by a state, an organization, or the media.