Archaic laws that criminalise defamation should be scrapped, while independent media need to find new sources of funding
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskAs news junkies celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd, it was worth remembering why it matters. A free press can scrutinise the mighty, expose corruption and deter abuses. For a tyrant, as Napoleon Bonaparte once lamented, “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than 1,000 bayonets.” The free flow of information is the lifeblood of democracy. Without it, voters cannot make informed choices.
Technology is being used to make life hell for uppity hacks. New tools make it easier to spy on them. Investigations last year found Pegasus eavesdropping software had been slipped into the mobile phones of almost 200 journalists, to read their messages, track them and identify their sources. Social media can be used to harass reporters. A survey found almost three-quarters of female journalists have endured online abuse.
, has been hit with more than 60 cases in recent years, many brought by leaders of the ruling party. A Maltese journalist who exposed state corruption was dealing with over 40 cases when she was assassinated in 2017. In more repressive places the task is harder, but technology can help. Where reporting on the ground is too risky, satellite imagery and big data sets allow journalists to pull together stories from afar. Free countries should offer them asylum, and a safe place to keep working. Where censorship is tight, citizens can use virtual private networks to access blocked content and online tools to capture web pages before they are censored.
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