Censorship and Survival in Egyptian Journalism | Media Literacy Study | Hate Speech in the Caribbean + our global roundup of media ethics news.
21 December 2019
EVENT: Censorship and Survival in Egyptian Journalism - 24 Jan - London
In the fifth of our series of “Ethics in the News” events at the Frontline Club, we have teamed up with the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers to mark the 8 year anniversary of the Tahrir Square protests in Cairo that began on 25th January 2011.
When: 7 pm Thursday 24 January 2019 Where: Frontline Club, London
The downward spiral of media freedoms in Egypt in those eight years is well documented. With one hand, the state has corroded access to information, removing websites that may be a “threat to national security”. With the other, it regularly attacks those that would provide the public with such reliable information. In 2018, Egypt jailed more journalists for “publishing false news” than any other country. Many others simply disappeared.
For those that remain, censorship reigns; censorship that shakes the bedrock of independent journalism in Egypt. For media workers, internalising those red lines presents some of the most challenging ethical decisions they will face in their careers and lives.
Join us to hear from those who’ve experienced first hand how censorship affects journalists – and journalism – in Egypt.
The event will begin with a film screening of “The People’s Property” (16 mins), which discusses self-censorship and press freedom in Egypt. The film was produced by WAN-IFRA (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers) as part of their Strengthening Media and Society in Developing Countries and Fragile States programme.
HANNAH STORM APPOINTED NEW CEO OF THE ETHICAL JOURNALISM NETWORK
As many of you may now know, Hannah Storm joins the EJNon 15 April from the International News safety Institute where she has been the Director since 2012.
The committee would be very grateful if you could complete this survey and share your experiences. The results of the study will be published in Autumn 2019 open access by the Council of Europe and will be an important point of reference for the future work of MSI-JOQ and the Council’s committees in general.
If there are other people or organisations in your network that you think would be interested in participating in this study, please feel free to forward this email to them. The survey will be available until 8 February 2019 and can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MSI-JOQ
Reporting Hate Speech & Violence in the Caribbean - An Action Plan
An action plan for media practitioners, managers and owners from across the Caribbean create by the Public Media Alliance (PMA) in collaboration with the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) and with the support of the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean is now available in English and Spanish.
In August 2018, a group of journalists and media professionals from across the Caribbean came together in Jamaica to discuss and create an action plan on hate speech and media coverage of violence for the region. The action plan was developed with the regional media landscape in mind, with participants using their local and personal experience to inform its development and ensure its relevance for the Caribbean context.
The workshop to the develop the action plan was facilitated by EJN trustee Dr Zahera Harb, Senior Lecturer in International Journalism, City, University of London and Ms Anika Kentish, President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers, with participants from a variety of backgrounds and media organisations.
The action plan adopted the EJN 5-point test for hate speech and was developed with the regional media landscape in mind, with participants using their local and personal experience to inform its development and ensure its relevance for the Caribbean context.
- How can journalists better cover labour migration?
- What are the ethical issues that arise?
- Should journalists ever become advocates for reform?
These were some of the themes the EJN's Tom Law discussed with Jordanian journalist Sawsan Tabazahon the sidelines of the ARIJ summit in December. Watch the discussion here.
Sawsan was one of the first journalists to take part in the EJN/ILO fellowship to support labour migration reporting in Jordan and other states in the region.
- Why ethical journalism matters for newsrooms and their audiences Following the EJN's session on good governance, self-regulation as a means to build trust with audiencesIJNETwrote a blog about the EJN's work with award-winning Jordanian new website 7iber over the last year using the EJN's Ethical Media Audit Process. You can also read the article inEspañol, Português, 简体中文, and عربى.
EJN adviser Racheal Nakitare, writes about how the framing of reporting was challenged at Media Challenge Expo 2018 a three-day event in Kampala towards the end of last year.
Media Literacy for Newsrooms In December 2018 the Ethical Journalism Network'sTom Law held a training of trainers workshop on media literacy in human rights and citizenship education at the Centre for International Cooperation in Trento, Italy.
- Here are 12 principles journalists should follow to make sure they’re protecting their sources
(Nieman Labs)
PLATFORMS & SOCIAL MEDIA
- Jack Dorsey Has No Clue What He Wants: A Q&A with Twitter's CEO on right-wing extremism, Candace Owens, and what he'd do if the president called on his followers to murder journalists. (Huff Post)
- People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds (The Verge)
- Tips for journalists negotiating personal boundaries online (IJNET)
MEDIA DIVERSITY
- SAY IT WITH ME: RACISM: “We are not in the hint business; we are here to report facts, including the difficult facts of racism.” (Nieman Lab)
- How the fossil fuel industry got the media to think climate change was debatable (Washington Post)
GLOBAL ETHICS NEWS
AFRICA
- Predictions for African media in 2019 (IJNET) GHANA: Ghanaian reporter is second journalist killed in 2019 after MP appears to call for people to ‘beat him’ on TV (Press Gazzette) KENYA: 'In Bad Taste, Disrespectful': Photo Of Terrorist Attack In Kenya Sparks Controversy (NPR)
AMERICAS
US: In a rare move, Mueller’s office denies BuzzFeed report that Trump told Cohen to lie about Moscow project (Washington Post) US: Covering a country where race is everywhere (CJR) US: “The first test case”: Amid the Bezos divorce, the Washington Post tries to sift between the tawdry gossip and the real news (Vanity Fair)
ASIA
CHINA: Learning China’s Forbidden History, So They Can Censor It (NYT)
EUROPE
UK: Our out-of-step press demonises desperate refugees (Guardian) UK: Full Fact to review news content on Facebook as social network launches UK fact-checking service (Press Gazette) LATVIA: Latvia gets Media Ethics Council (iMediaEthics) RUSSIA: Facebook Identifies Russia-Linked Misinformation Campaign (NYT)
MIDDLE EAST
SAUDI ARABIA: Jamal Khashoggi: Timeline of Saudi journalist’s death and international response 100 days on(Press Gazette) TURKEY: Poor media literacy ‘making Turks vulnerable to fake news’ (Hurriyet Daily News)
EJN ANNUAL REPORT 2017/2018
The Ethical Journalism Network Annual Report for 2017 and the first months of 2018 covers a period in which the buzzwords “fake news” and “post-truth” provided a misleading but appropriate focus for the news industry.
In recent months the challenges of a flawed information landscape have been dramatically exposed with Google, Facebook and other internet giants being called to account for their failure to promptly deal with the pollution of the information landscape.
The EJN's Trust in Ethical Journalism reports looks at how the communications revolution is continuing to pose more questions than answers over a public crisis of confidence, both in democracy and in sources of public information.
Can 2018 be the year when ethical journalism, a human instinct beyond encoding and algorithmic definition, finally gets the recognition it deserves?
