Journalism Practice

Westlund, Oscar; Krøvel, Roy; Skare Orgeret, Kristin

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2022.2130818pmid: N/A

Journalism is often referred to as one of the most important knowledge-producing institutions in society, yet also one facing numerous challenges, among which the safety of journalists critical. Public visibility as a journalist, having thousands of followers on social media, was until recently aspired by many in the field. However, this may well be disadvantageous to journalists scrutinizing sensitive topics, encountering actors that do their best to outright undermine and delegitimize journalism, also in Western democracies. This article begins by introducing and discussing research and ongoing developments relating to journalism and safety. It then turns to the sociotechnical and three-dimensional concept we call Newsafety, encompassing infrastructures, practices and consequences. Moreover, the article introduces and highlight key contributions from the special issue, which features six original articles and two invited commentaries. In closing, we call for interdisciplinary research focusing especially on psychological- and digital issues related to the UNESCO research agenda on the safety of journalists.

Henrichsen, Jennifer R.

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2021.1927802pmid: N/A

This paper utilizes concepts from new institutionalism to help explain journalists’ and news organizations’ resistance to implementing security-related practices despite a deteriorating safety and security environment for journalists in the United States. Through 30 interviews with journalists, technologists, and media lawyers, I identify three main variables for the resistance to the development of newsroom security cultures, as well as a new social actor necessary for the development of security cultures in newsrooms: the “security champion.” The emergence of this new institutional entrepreneur highlights an intriguing tension. Although news organizations have engaged in slow adoption of the anonymous whistleblowing platform SecureDrop, they have not necessarily engaged in an institutionalization of security practices throughout the newsroom. The decoupling of these two factors represents attempts by news organizations to have institutional legitimacy while not changing core practices. In conjunction with this phenomenon, inspired individuals in newsrooms across the country are becoming ad hoc “security champions” in order to build security cultures from the ground up.

Di Salvo, Philip

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2021.2014346pmid: N/A

Internet surveillance has become a crucial issue for journalism. The “Snowden moment” has shed light on the risks that journalists and their sources face while communicating online and has shown how journalists themselves can be targets of surveillance operations or other forms of malicious digital attacks from different actors. More recent revelations, such as those coming from the “Pegasus Project”, have underlined even more dangerous threats posed to the safety of journalists, increasingly targeted with spyware technology. Due to the sensitivity of their work and sources and given their strong “watchdog” role in democracies, investigative reporters are in a particularly dangerous position when it comes to the potential chilling effects of surveillance on their work of journalists. This paper analyzes investigative journalists’ views and self-reflections on the impacts of Internet surveillance on their work by means of in-depth qualitative interviews with reporters affiliated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and working in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. The paper touches on different angles of the Internet surveillance issue by analyzing journalists’ concerns about national and international surveillance players and the overall impact of surveillance on news work.

Porlezza, Colin; Arafat, Rana

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2021.1925947pmid: N/A

Diaspora journalists and digital media play an important role as stakeholders for war-ridden homeland media landscapes such as Syria. This study analyzes, from a safety in practice perspective, the physical and digital threats that challenge the work of Syrian citizen journalists examining the role of three online advocacy networks created by Syrian diaspora journalists to promote newsafety. Through a metajournalistic discourse analysis of the networks’ published visions and missions, and 12 in-depth interviews with the founders and other selected members of the networks, the paper investigates how journalists working for these networks perceive threats, what counterstrategies they adopt, and how they understand the changing nature of their roles. Findings demonstrate that diaspora journalists perceived physical and digital threats as inescapable, following them across borders. Counterstrategies are implemented through collaborations with civil society actors and human rights organizations, aiming to offer professional safety training programs and emergency rescue for journalists under attack, but also through the release of safety guides or codes of conduct. Grounded on the findings, we propose four novel journalistic roles for promoting newsafety from exile: sousveillance, defender, trainer, and regulator/policy developer. While the networks follow some traditional journalistic ideologies, they also show a hybrid conceptualization of journalism.

Higgins Joyce, Vanessa de Macedo; Cueva Chacón, Lourdes; Alves, Rosental Calmon

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2022.2062427pmid: N/A

Latin American journalism has experienced recent transitions marked by digital affordances, including a growth of investigative journalism. The region has also experienced more political and economic instability, giving rise to a wave of threats and harassment against journalists. This repeated cross-sectional study analyzes the changing perceptions of threats and attacks as barriers to investigative journalism, through surveys of journalists from 20 Latin American countries conducted in 2013 and 2017. It performs intra-regional comparison utilizing the hierarchy of influences model. It found that women and those with fewer years of working experience (individual characteristics) were increasingly likely to perceive threats and attacks as a main barrier to investigative journalism. It also found that those working for digital platforms and working more independently (organizational characteristics) were also increasingly likely to perceive threats and attacks as major barriers.

Workneh, Téwodros W.

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2021.1919176pmid: N/A

Non-state media journalists in Ethiopia traditionally faced safety threats emanating from state-sponsored attacks and punitive legal frameworks. Recently, however, state hostility is being replaced by non-state actors’ aggression against journalists. By framing emerging threats of reporters’ safety in Ethiopia within normative vis-à-vis alternative debates of journalism practice in the context of transitional, unstable, pluralistic-partizan societies, this study examines the prevalence of non-state actors in remapping threats of journalistic impunity in Ethiopia. Key findings from interviews conducted with editors, reporters, and other practitioners indicate, while the government cannot be ruled out as a safety threat for journalists, there is an emerging consensus that identifies non-state actors such as vigilante groups, influential social media political personalities, and weaponized media as the most perceptible safety risks to journalism practice. Although threat levels vary depending on journalists’ regional affiliation or perceived ethnic identity/political worldview, domestic journalists face increased native othering that amounts to mobility restrictions and physical aggression compared to foreign correspondents.

Urbániková, Marína; Haniková, Lenka

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2021.1877179pmid: N/A

In this contribution, using a case-study approach, we focus on the assassination of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée and explore the impact and consequences that it had on the community of investigative journalists in Slovakia. By conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with top investigative journalists (N = 12), we seek to answer two questions: How have they coped with the murder of their colleague? And, how has this incident changed their everyday journalistic practices and routines when it comes to achieving and maintaining safety? We identified 12 coping actions which, based on their function, were organised into five higher order families of coping: emotional purging; sharing and support seeking; avoidance and displacement; defiance and defence; and spreading the legacy and giving meaning to the tragedy. Regarding safety and security practices, the journalists claim that their approach has fundamentally changed. A variety of measures to stay safe, both online and offline, were adopted both on the organisational and on the individual level. However, many of these measures are not used consistently, mostly because they are not deemed necessary when covering non-sensitive topics, but also because of their impracticality in everyday journalistic work, and sceptical and fatalistic approach of the journalists to safety.

Waisbord, Silvio

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2022.2098524pmid: N/A

The safety of journalists is one of the most formidable challenges for press freedom and democracy around the world. The problem is the result of the juxtaposition of various forms of violence that break journalists’ sense of security and autonomy – the ability to control and decide the parameters of their work. Threats to safety drive journalists to self-censorship and to use extreme caution. Here I propose that the problem of journalists’ safety is worse and more complex today than in the recent past. This explains why the problem has received growing attention globally, and why it is hard to find solutions. A growing academic and grey literature continues to demonstrate that violence is a sprawling problem, and the challenges for implementing effective, sustainable solutions to confront a multidimensional problem, with local and national particularities. The articles in this issue provide further insights for understanding threats to safety and debating solutions.

Canela, Guilherme

doi: 10.1080/17512786.2022.2126994pmid: N/A

The commentary highlights the analysis of an international organizations’ technocrat in charge of implementing multilateral policy designed to increase the safety of journalists by preventing, protecting, and prosecuting crimes against them. Being UNESCO the leading coordinating UN agency in the implementation of these policies, the lessons learnt from the first decade of the implementation of the UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity are the crosscutting element of this commentary, particularly aiming to suggest areas of research that could further support evidence-based policymaking.