Today the International Press Institute (IPI) joins its partners in the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) in launching our annual report documenting our organisation’s systematic monitoring of media freedom violations across Europe in 2021.

Between January until December 2021, a total of 626 alerts were documented on Mapping Media Freedom (MapMF) platform across EU Member States, candidate countries and the United Kingdom – ranging from physical attacks to SLAPP lawsuits and online harassment.

A total of 1,063 individuals or media entities in 30 countries were subject to one or more press freedom violations, including the murder of three journalists – underscoring the increasing threats to media freedom, journalist’s safety and independent journalism in Europe.

Download the full report here

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2021 was marked – as the previous year – by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than one in four incidents (26.5% of alerts) were linked to the COVID-19, a figure comparable to the one in 2020 – 27.7%.

Many media freedom violations took place at protests and demonstrations – many held by anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown groups – where 178 alerts were recorded, 28.4% of the total. There was an increase in attacks taking place online, which rose from 14% of alerts in 2020 to 16,7% in 2021.

As for types of attacks, the most common included were verbal attacks (41.1%) such as intimidation, harassment or insults, followed by legal incidents (25.4%), physical attacks (21.1%), attacks to property (11.8%), and censorship (11.3%) such as arbitrary denial of accreditation or registration.

The report is divided in four main sections which offer quantitative and qualitative analysis of the main attacks perpetrated against journalists and media workers during the year. The first section provides a general picture and includes visualisations and statistics that summarise the data and explain the main findings of the monitoring project.

The analysis is followed by thematic reports focusing on two of the most relevant topics spotted by the monitoring partners throughout the year: attacks and threats linked to COVID-19 and online attacks. The third section focuses on country studies from the following states: Germany, Turkey, France, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Albania, Montenegro, and Hungary.

This report was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.

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Since the beginning of pandemic, representatives of the independent press have been barred from filming or reporting from within hospitals and their COVID-19 wards. In March 2021, this led to an unprecedented appeal from the editors of 28 media outlets to the prime minister that the rules be changed to allow the media to record within health care facilities.

This appeal was rejected by the PM, who said that such a move could lead to the spread of  “fake news”. Since the start of the pandemic, the government-controlled public television and the state news agency have been the only media permitted to film inside hospitals. Independent newsrooms have requested access on dozens of occasions but all were rejected by the government’s Department of Human Resources (Emmi).

This led Telex and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) to launch legal action against the government on the basis that the order disproportionately affected media freedom. The Metropolitan Court initially sided with the government last year. Following an appeal, on January 27, 2022, the Supreme Court sided with Telex and ruled that Emmi could not bar media from reporting from within hospitals, as that power lay with individual hospital directors.

However, just two days later on January 29, the government passed a decree which bypassed the Supreme Court’s ruling. It instead determined that only the government centre in charge of managing the pandemic, the Operational Tribunal, could decide on press access and accreditation. The rule came into effect on February 5, 2022, leading to a fresh outcry about government interference from the country’s remaining independent media titles.

“This government decree is another shocking example of the Hungarian government’s efforts to block media’s access to public health information and hinder the ability of independent media to do their job” said IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen. “During the pandemic, media across Europe have been able to report from within hospitals and speak with front-line health workers. This has been vital for showing the human face of the health services and for building trust in state health measures, as well as allowing for frontline staff to raise concern when necessary and to foster healthy debate on health policy.

“In Hungary, however, despite numerous appeals, journalists have repeatedly been barred from visiting hospitals, limiting transparency and leaving reporting from within health facilities to state media, which sorely lack independence and impartiality. There is no other country in the European Union right now which still has such restrictive hospital reporting policies in place as Hungary.

“IPI continues to condemn the Hungarian government’s efforts to ban journalists from hospitals. That a government decree was used to bypass a ruling from the Curia is a stark example of the length which Fidesz will go to retain control over the COVID-19 messaging ahead of the upcoming elections. We stand with independent journalists in Hungary in their demand for access to information, which is a fundamental right. It’s shocking that this is still up for debate in an EU member state.”

The government decree means the Operational Tribunal will have full responsibilities for deciding on which journalists and TV crews can film or record interviews on the premises of health facilities. That body will have the power to overrule directors who feel it is acceptable to welcome media into their facilities they head.

During the pandemic, journalists working for what remains of the country’s independent media operate in an extremely challenging environment for accessing public information or questioning public officials. While media critical of the government are shunned for interview requests, the prime minister meanwhile gives expansive interviews to state-controlled media. After the media sent an open letter to the PM in March 2021, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs accused “left-wing portals” of spreading “fake news” to embarrass the country’s health care system.

At different points during the pandemic, doctors and other healthcare professionals have been forced to speak with media off record to raises concern about their institutions’ capacity to handle rising cases and an influx of patients. The government decree came amidst a general election campaign for the April 3 election.

This statement by IPI is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.

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Several incidents of hostility and violence towards media were reported in Rome on 9 October, when journalists and photojournalists were attacked while reporting on a protest by anti-vaccine and far-right groups against government measures to require all workers to carry the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

Photojournalist Francesco Cocco, a contributor to daily newspaper Il Foglio, said he was deliberately kicked in the groin and injured by a uniformed police officer while documenting the street protest near via Largo Chigi in the capital. Video footage captures Cocco being hit off-camera and dropping to the floor, almost dropping the equipment.

That same afternoon, Flavia Amabile, a journalist with daily newspaper La Stampa, was hit with batons by police while covering the protest near the Piazza del Popolo. First, a police officer in riot gear hit her and another photojournalist with a truncheon despite being made aware they were journalists. In a second incident, Amabile was amidst a group of protesters filming on her mobile phone when the police moved forward and began hitting people violently with truncheons.

On the same day, la Repubblica photojournalist Alessandro Serranò was also attacked with a shovel by a protester who had broken into a construction site and armed himself. Video footage shows Serranò holding a makeshift shield as a man violently swings the shovel at him. He was taken to the emergency room with minor injuries. Journalist Sara Giudice and colleagues from La7 Piazzapulita were also attacked by protesters. Police confirmed that a 52-year-old man was charged with causing aggravated injuries. A trial hearing is set for 10 December.

Two days later, on 11 October, a crew from the public broadcaster Tgr Rai in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia was threatened and had their equipment damaged as they were covering anti-green-pass protests near the port in Trieste. Journalist Alessandra Zigaina had a microphone snatched out of her hand and thrown away into the crowd. A camera was also ripped out of the operator’s hand and dropped. The crew were also pushed and insulted. During the protest march, the demonstrators stopped outside the Rai headquarters to chant anti-media slogans and shout insults.

#Italy: IPI strongly condemns multiple acts of violence & threats against journalists & photographers by both anti-vaccine protesters and police at recent demonstrations in #Rome & #Trieste@flaviaamabile @LaStampa @FrancescoCoccoT @TgrRaiFVG @FnsiSocialhttps://t.co/JjJbnONVH5 pic.twitter.com/6udQi4VJes

— IPI-The Global Network for Independent Journalism (@globalfreemedia) October 13, 2021

Our organisations join Italian journalists’ rights groups in strongly condemning all these incidents of violence against the media. Concerningly, these kinds of attacks have underscored the consistent threats that journalists in Italy face while reporting on anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine pass protests. During the pandemic, MFRR monitoring organisations have documented dozens of attacks and threats against journalists and media workers by protesters in various parts of the country, both during protests and against journalists investigating or reporting on anti-vaccine and conspiracy theory groups. Abuse of journalists covering demonstrations is becoming the norm rather than an anomaly.

We call on the Italian government to urgently take action to improve the safety of journalists covering protests. There is clearly a need for improving the public’s media literacy, so they better understand the press’ role, while also duly investigating and prosecuting acts of violence and harassment. Furthermore, any acts of police brutality must be swiftly and adequately investigated through an appropriate disciplinary process. This must be paired with improved capacity-building among law enforcement personnel in coordination with representatives of the journalistic profession to generate a better understanding of journalists’ and media workers’ protection needs during demonstrations.

Signed:

ARTICLE 19

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

Free Press Unlimited (FPU)

International Press Institute (IPI)

OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)

This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.

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Investigative journalist Stefano Valentino didn’t fancy the European Commission’s chances if things ended up in court. He’d studied an unredacted version of its contract with AstraZeneca, given to him by a confidential source.

His conclusion: the pharmaceutical giant had the EU over a barrel.

“In the case of AstraZeneca, there are precise figures on how many doses the company agreed to deliver to the EU every month, but in the event that it doesn’t meet them, those figures are entirely meaningless,” Valentino told the International Press Institute in an interview.

“There’s a clause saying that member states cannot take any legal action against AstraZeneca if the company doesn’t deliver the number of doses agreed for a given month.

“What’s the purpose of quantifying the number of doses to be delivered every month if the member states can do nothing to force the company to deliver them? It’s not a contract. It’s wishful thinking.”

Valentino is a Brussels-based freelancer who specialises in the inner workings of EU decision-making. With more than two decades in journalism, he is known for exposing corporate lobbying and conflicts between public and private interests.

As COVID-19 engulfed Europe last year, he secured a €26,000 grant from IPI’s IJ4EU fund for cross-border investigative journalism to investigate how major drugmakers involved in the EU’s vaccination drive were trying to cash in on the fight against the pandemic.

Leading a team of journalists based in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, Valentino examined what he describes as “the line between profiteering and saving lives”.

The result is The COVID-19 Jackpot — a series of dozens of stories published in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German.

Vaccines and #COVID: Part 1: The cost of delay @M0BILEREP0RTER @VoxEurop #IJ4EU #MediaEU

https://t.co/s3xUMm423o

— IPI – The Global Network for Press Freedom (@globalfreemedia) March 25, 2021

The investigation reveals how multinational drugmakers held all the cards when it came to negotiating contracts for life-saving vaccines. As one VoxEurop headline put it: “The EU is at the mercy of Big Pharma.”

The team also showed that the European Commission has allowed pharmaceutical giants to control the supply of vaccines in the EU — in contrast to countries like India, Australia and Japan, where looser licensing regimes allow third parties to make and sell jabs in unlimited quantities.

“On the one hand, vaccines are meant to save lives,” Valentino said. “On the other hand, they represent a great opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to make profits and improve their public image. I have tried to explain how EU policymaking has a hard time setting the balances between these two, often opposing, interests.”

‘Preserving corporate secrecy’

In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Valentino said the company had made global supply commitments “without even being sure whether its plants would be able to produce enough doses or not”.

He added: “AstraZeneca wouldn’t have been able to supply doses to other customers if it hadn’t delayed the delivery of the doses promised to the EU. Now the European Commission is putting restrictions on exports to other countries. But it’s not the fault of those countries. The EU should take action against AstraZeneca and not prevent other countries from receiving their doses.”

Latest from ‘Who’s cashing in on #Covid-19 pandemic’ () @VoxEurop @M0BILEREP0RTER, supported by IPI’s #IJ4EU fund for x-border journalism. The clash between EU & AstraZeneca over vaccines has revealed questionable contracts signed with Big Pharma. https://t.co/AMs3Z0lJde

— IPI – The Global Network for Press Freedom (@globalfreemedia) March 2, 2021

Valentino said the EU’s crisis in confidence over vaccines could have been avoided with greater transparency.

“If the general public had been informed about these contracts in the beginning, everybody would’ve known what both the pharmaceutical companies and the European Commission were doing,” he said.

“This lack of transparency proves that the Commission favoured the interest of companies, preserving corporate secrecy by keeping the contracts confidential, rather than acting for the public good and disclosing the contracts in the very beginning to make sure that people would not be misled and deceived.

“If this had happened, everybody would have known since the beginning that the agreed number of doses supplied was not 100 percent guaranteed. This was a big mistake and the Commission has lost its credibility.”

In addition to analysing procurement contracts, Valentino and his team poured over hundreds of EU documents, including minutes from negotiations between the Commission and pharmaceutical companies.

“Through these minutes, which will be made public one-by-one, we will able to see what the European Commission asked for in the beginning and what was refused by pharmaceutical companies, especially regarding the prices, deadlines, responsibility in case of side effects caused by the vaccines, or even intellectual property and co-ownership of patents considering that the EU funded those companies.”

Part 2 in @MOBILEREPORTER‘s ‘Who’s cashing in on #Covid-19 pandemic’ saga, supported by IPI’s #IJ4EU fund for cross-border investigative journalism @VoxEurop https://t.co/EDAcrGUVJm

— IPI – The Global Network for Press Freedom (@globalfreemedia) March 5, 2021

Complex investigation

The result was a slew of stories that resonated across the EU, appearing in publications including VoxEurop, Il Fatto Quotidiano, La Republicca and El Confidencial.

“Sometimes reactions were very dramatic,” Valentino said. “Many readers were very disappointed about the way the Commission was played out by the pharmaceutical companies. I’ve been trying to explain that the Commission was trying to do its best and the companies logically couldn’t commit to those deliveries.

“It’s very hard for leaders who are looking at the information from the outside and are not part of the research process to have an objective view.

“Some more informed people made more balanced comments, saying it was a mistake by citizens and the EU to trust the companies so much and to believe they would deliver as many doses as they’d hoped for.”

Vaccines and #COVID: Part 2: The copyright issue @M0BILEREP0RTER @VoxEurop #IJ4EU #MediaEUhttps://t.co/T1U8nnwxkQ

— IPI – The Global Network for Press Freedom (@globalfreemedia) March 25, 2021

Valentino said that without the IJ4EU Investigation Support Scheme grant, “this story would never have happened, or at least not on such a large scale”.

“It was a very complex investigation with many facets,” he added. “I needed to know about the vaccine itself, its efficacy and effectiveness; how it’s manufactured; how the corporate supply chain works; and the vaccine approval process.

“I needed to talk to dozens of sources — NGOs, lawyers, scientists, doctors, pharmaceutical experts — to be able to process and present the information in an unbiased and critical way.

“All this is only possible if you have full control of the topic, keeping yourself away from influence by different actors who have a clear interest to convey their message, who try to sell you their side of the story.

“Some NGOs will claim that the Commission is just helping the companies to make a profit, but the reality is much more nuanced. If you do not have a good understanding of what is going on, you are exposed to the risk of becoming a partisan of NGOs or companies.

“I needed to do a lot of research and I wouldn’t have been able to sustain my work financially. Even before I received the grant, I had to do research; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to apply for it.

“Now, as I publish the stories, new things are coming out and I will continue my research even beyond the grant period.”

Visit the Investigative Journalism for Europe (IJ4EU) site to see all the stories in The COVID-19 Jackpot.

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IPI, a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists for press freedom, also urged UKOM to ensure that journalists from all media outlets were given adequate opportunity to question ministers at online government press conferences.

On February 3, 2021, Slovenia’s public broadcaster, RTV Slovenija, reported that Bojana Beović, head of the advisory group at the Ministry of Health, was denied permission to appear on its late-night news show Odmevi to comment on false positive results in rapid antigen tests.

RTVSLO reported that in response to emailed interview requests, it received a message saying that UKOM Director Uroš Urbanija had “forbidden” officials from providing answers to media or giving interviews.

It was later reported that Education Minister Simona Kustec, Milan Krek, director of the National Institute of Public Health, and other health officials were also refused permission to appear on commercial television station Kanal A to give interviews on the testing system.

UKOM’s policy was condemned by both the Slovenian Union of Journalists (SNS) and the Slovene Association of Journalists (DNS) as an act of censorship, though the government body has rejected the criticism.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Slovenian government has a heightened responsibility to ensure that the public has access to timely and up-to-date sources of news from a range of sources”, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said. “Blocking health experts and ministers from appearing on the country’s public broadcaster and other media runs completely parallel to this responsibility.

He added: “UKOM must immediately reconsider this policy and ensure government representatives are not barred from communicating with the media. Unfortunately, this appears to be yet another example of the efforts by the current administration to undermine and undercut public trust in the work of media and journalists whose reporting is challenging or critical of the government.”

SNS denounced UKOM’s interview policy and said that by “limiting cooperation of representatives of the government and various public institutions with certain journalists and media”, the government body was “trying to control content in the media and avoid reporting on different opinions and criticism of the government’s work”.

DNS said UKOM could not tailor media content, adding: “Centralised government communication, censorship of own functionaries and restricting journalists’ access to information are the features of autocratic and undemocratic systems which do not respect freedom of speech”.

Griffen also urged UKOM to allow journalists full access to information at online government press conferences. In recent weeks, DNS has received reports that journalists from certain publications were being overlooked and discriminated against because of the outlet they represent during rounds of questions from the press.

The Slovenian Press Agency, which has been in the crosshairs of the government in the last few months, has been unable to ask questions on several occasions during press conferences with the prime minister. Journalists from other media outlets have been repeatedly overlooked or ignored when trying to ask questions, according to reports.

“Blacklisting or discrimination against journalists from certain outlets during press conferences seriously undermines the freedom of the press to exercise its right to gather information, seek responses from officials and hold power to account”, Griffen said.

UKOM has denied the allegations of censorship in its policy on interviews, saying it was “coordinating” appearances by government officials and representatives of the COVID-19 advisory group, who answer journalists’ questions at daily government press briefings.

In a letter to IPI after publication of this article, UKOM again rejected any suggestion that it had engaged in censorship and emphasized that it “supports the free activity of the media and does not obstruct the media in the gathering of information.”

UKOM director Urbanija, a key ally of prime minister Janez Janša, has come under criticism in recent months for suspending financing for the country’s press agency and urging citizens to take to social media to publicly denounce media “manipulators”.

This statement by IPI is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.

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Over the past few days, several journalists and TV crews have been threatened, insulted or physically attacked by groups of rioters as they covered unrest sparked by the Dutch government’s newly imposed coronavirus curfew restrictions.

On Sunday, a reporter from the daily newspaper Brabants Dagblad was pelted with stones and chased by a group of young protesters in Tilburg. The same day a cameraman and reporter Jan Peels from Omroep Brabant also had stones thrown at them by rioters in Eindhoven.

In Enschede, a freelance press photographer working for daily newspaper Tubantia was hit and kicked in the shin when she was trapped and then confronted by rioters. During the attack, one man tried to steal her camera and another called her a “cancer journalist”.

A 39-year-old man from Almere was arrested for posting a viral video threatening photographers and journalists who had reported on the recent riot on Museumplein in Amsterdam on Sunday, saying that they should resign or flee abroad or be harmed.

On Saturday evening, a TV crew for the public broadcaster NOS also faced intimidation and obstruction from a group of young people as they tried to film a coronavirus test centre which had been burnt down. During the incident, the security guard accompanying the crew was sprayed in the face with a corrosive substance during an altercation.

Violence continued on Monday night when two photographers from Haarlems Dagblad, Laurens Bosch and Michel van Bergen, had stones thrown in the Schalkwijk district of Haarlem. Bosch was chased, hit on the head by a stone and had to seek refuge in a riot police van. The same night, a photographer and cameraman from Inter Visual Studio were targeted by fireworks as they reported from Amsterdam.

In Haarlem wordt momenteel gereld. Er worden stenen gegooid. Ik heb er een van dichtbij tegen m’n hoofd gekregen. De ME wordt ook bekogeld. Er wordt luid vuurwerk afgestoken. https://t.co/pQxivpEWFK pic.twitter.com/jRIHMj0HBe

— Laurens Bosch (@BoschLaurens) January 25, 2021

In response to the violence, Thomas Bruning, general secretary of the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) has called for an end to attacks on journalists, cameramen and photographers adding: “It is not normal for journalists to have to go out with security guards”. Other journalists have reported having to wear helmets and protective gear for the first time in their careers.

These instances of violence and threats are the most visible examples yet of a rising anti-press sentiment within certain segments of Dutch society – a trend particularly jarring in a country which enjoys one the highest levels of press freedom in the world and is known for its defence of independent journalism on the global stage.

Pandemic intensifies hostility towards media

During COVID-19, a mix of increasing polarization, populist politics, fraying trust in mainstream news sources and conspiracy theories about the role of the media during the pandemic are contributing to growing anti-press sentiment stewing in far-right social media networks, leading to threats against journalists both online and on the streets.

In 2020, monitoring groups in the Netherlands charted a significant increase in threats and acts of aggression against journalists, with figures nearly trebling on the previous year from 52 to 141. While this may in part be down to the success of the new PressVeilig (Press Safety) hotline – a joint initiative of the NVJ, the Association of Editors-in-Chief, the Police and the Public Prosecution Service – editors have still noted a clear increase in hostility.

After the weekend’s riots, Marcel Gelauff, editor-in-chief of NOS News, stressed the threats against his journalists were part of a larger tend: “The safety of journalists and technicians has been an issue in journalism for a number of years and is increasingly a social issue.”

“The working conditions of journalists are under increasing pressure. The examples are well-known: making the work literally impossible, threatening, intimidating, framing, deliberately spreading lies, calling names, especially online”, he added. “As an editorial team, we spend more and more money on our security… That is money that we cannot spend on our journalism assignment. Quality independent journalism has its price.”

NOS has taken much of the brunt of this growth in aggression towards media during the pandemic. In October 2020, Gelauff announced the broadcaster had removed its logos from all satellite vans due to persistent threats made against the equipment and employees.

These have included verbal abuse of journalists and technicians, garbage being thrown at the vans and roads being blocked to stop the crews from travelling, he added. On other occasions, NOS has had broadcasts interrupted by people banging and urinating on the side of its vans.

On other occasions journalists covering and debunking conspiracy theories online, such as Jerry Vermanen, a data and investigative journalist for Pointer, have been targeted with a barrage of insults and threats on Twitter related to their work. A number of messages included explicit threats and efforts were made to hack the social media accounts of both him and his wife.

Physical threats against other journalists, while still uncommon, have become increasingly alarming. In late December 2020, a hand grenade was found outside the house of De Limburger newspaper crime reporter Jos Emonts and had to be handled by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service Defense (EOD).

While the motivation was unclear, De Limburger editor-in-chief Bjorn Oostra said at the time it was likely connected to the journalist’s work and described it as “an attack on the free press and independent journalism”.

A large group of young people pelts the police present with stones and fireworks in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 25 January 2021. EPA-EFE / Killian Lindenburg / MediaTV

After the weekend’s riots and attacks on the media, Bruning from the NVJ made a pointed call to right-wing politicians including Thierry Baudet, founder and leader of Forum for Democracy (VVD) and Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) to “make it clear how important the role of journalism is”.

The leaders of both right-wing and far-right parties have been accused of using the pandemic to fan the flames of online conspiracy theories, COVID-19 denial and distrust of establishment politics and mainstream Dutch media. The Almere man accused of threatening harm against journalists was a former candidate councillor for the VVD, Ronald Laken.

It mirrors a clear trend observed by press freedom groups including IPI throughout the pandemic: journalists being attacked by members of far-right and conspiracy-theory groups during coverage of protests over government lockdowns or COVID-19 measures.

According to IPI’s COVID-19 tracker, while numerous journalists were attacked at anti-lockdown demonstrations in the first wave between March and May 2020, incidents had become more frequent and severe in recent months, raising growing concerns about the safety of journalists and the willingness of editors to send reporting crews into the field.

This article by IPI is part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries.

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Emergency regulations were put in place, while new and existing laws relating to disinformation and fake news were used to stifle independent media. In several countries, journalists from independent media were denied access to press briefings, access to official information was severely limited and regulations were imposed to compel media organizations to report data provided by the government.

According to IPI’s COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker, nearly 200 violations linked to the pandemic were reported from the Asia-Pacific region, of which 107 were from four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. As many as 71 journalists faced arrests and charges for their coverage of the pandemic and its consequences, and 32 cases of physical attacks and verbal threats were reported from these countries.

With 84 cases, India accounted for the greatest number of violations in the region. As many as 56 journalists were arrested or charged under various laws, and 23 journalists came under verbal and physical attacks. The Indian government resorted to various tactics to prevent independent media from criticizing the government and reporting about the pandemic.

In a blatant attempt to stifle press freedom, on March 31 the government unsuccessfully petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to bar the media from publishing information about COVID-19 that had not been cleared by the government. The court refused to intervene but directed the media to “refer to and publish” the official version of the developments.

“In 2020, IPI has observed unacceptable levels of attacks against independent media and journalists in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, a region where press freedom has already been severely curtailed in recent years”, IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said. “Throughout the pandemic, independent journalism has been a vital resource to people and governments’ efforts to control the media message and pre-empt public scrutiny ran counter to the public interest and represented a serious breach of people’s rights.”

“As we look at 2021, strengthening the independent media and protecting journalist safety in the region will be a core aspect to any strategy to counter the effect of the pandemic. Or else, democracy in the region will be severely damaged”, Trionfi added.

In a majority of cases, Indian officials targeted journalists for reporting about the failure of the administration to manage the pandemic. As many as 10 cases were filed against six journalists in the northern states of Himachal Pradesh for their reports about hunger amongst migrant workers stranded due to a sudden lockdown imposed by the government, and criticism of the local administration for the lack of proper food distribution. According to a report, police filed charges after journalists and local politicians got into arguments about their reporting.

The Editors’ Guild of India condemned the police actions and urged the governments to stop using legal tools to harass the press. The statement came in response to the arrest of Dhaval Patel, owner and editor of the Gujarati language news portal “Face of Nation”, who was detained and charged with sedition for writing an article about the possibility of leadership change in Gujarat, the home states of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, due to an increasing number of coronavirus cases in the state.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, government charged 11 people, including journalists and a cartoonist, with spreading false information about the pandemic. Only two of them were taken into custody as others were living abroad. At the time of his arrest, cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was working on a series of cartoons with caricatures of ruling party leaders and allegations of corruption in the health sector. Another journalist, Sajal Bhuiyan, was assaulted by a government official and his supporters when he raised questions about the shortage of rice in the region owing to the pandemic.

As many as 10 press freedom violations related to COVID-19 were reported from Nepal, including six cases of attacks on journalists and four arrests. Supporters of a local politician attacked Nabaraj Dhanuk, a reporter for Radio Dhangadi and picketed outside the office of the radio station following a news broadcast about embezzlement allegedly committed by the politician. At least four journalists were arrested by the police in different parts of the country for reporting during the lockdown, despite the fact that the government had declared media as an essential service.

In Pakistan, the most glaring case of violation was the torture of two journalists by paramilitary forces for their reporting about the squalid conditions in a quarantine centre close to the Afghan border. Saeed Ali Achakzai and Abdul Mateen Achakzai alleged that they were summoned to the command centre for the Frontier Corps and handed over to the anti-terrorism task force. They were taken to a prison and assaulted. The officials of Qala-e-Abdullah district claimed that the journalists were arrested for spreading fake news and disrupting public order.

Furthermore, eight journalists were killed in targeted attacks in the region in 2020. In India at least five journalists were killed for their work, whereas in Pakistan two journalists died in attacks by unidentified gunmen. In Bangladesh, a journalist was killed for his reporting on drug and illegal gas connections. Three persons were arrested for the murder.

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A court in Shanghai today convicted Zhang for ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’, a charge often levelled by the Chinese government against activists, and sentenced her to four years in prison. She was detained on May 15 at Pudong New District Detention Centre in Shanghai and formally charged in November.

The indictment alleged that Zhang had sent “false information through text, video and other media through [platforms like] WeChat, Twitter and YouTube”. The authorities also accused the journalist of “maliciously spreading information” about the COVID-19 infections in Wuhan by giving interviews to foreign media.

Police prevented some foreign diplomats, and Zhang’s friends and supporters from entering the courtroom today. Only her lawyers and mother could attend the hearing.

“The sentence against Zhang Zhan for sharing information of public interest about the pandemic is unacceptable and a serious violation not only of her rights, but also of people’s right to receive information from different sources about an issue that is greatly affecting their lives,” IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said.

“As the world is struggling to assess the origins, dissemination patterns and consequences of the COVID-19 virus, China is shirking its responsibilities and obligations by punishing those journalists who have contributed to disseminating valuable information.”

According to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Zhang had travelled to Wuhan in February and extensively reported on the outbreak of COVID-19 as well as about the detention of other journalists and harassment of families of victims. Her reports appeared on twitter, WeChat and YouTube accounts.

Soon after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, China had cracked down on journalists reporting about spread of the virus in Wuhan. Besides Zhang, two other citizen journalists Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin were also detained by authorities after they reported from Wuhan.

Chen, a human rights lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in January and reported from hospitals, funeral parlors and makeshift isolation wards in videos he posted online. He was last heard from on Thursday, February 6. According to media reports, he is now living with his parents in South East China, closely watched by the authorities.

Another citizen journalist, Fang Bin, a 47-year-old Wuhan businessman, was arrested on February 1, after posting a video showing eight corpses piled in a minibus outside a hospital in Wuhan, and was released.

However, on February 9 Bin was arrested again and his YouTube channel went silent after he had posted a short video with words “all people revolt –  hand the power of the government back to the people”. Since then, his whereabouts are not known.

According to IPI data, around the world as many as 197 journalists have been arrested or charged for reporting about COVID-19. The Chinese government, however, has not revealed the exact number of journalists arrested in connection with their reporting about the pandemic.

In March, China expelled journalists with The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, effectively curbing the coverage of the pandemic by the foreign media in the country.

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Haddad, editor of the news website Al-Wakaai, was arrested on December 24, on the orders of the state security court prosecutor, for his report claiming that Jordan had received a supply of COVID-19 vaccines and that some senior officials had been vaccinated. The journalist has been accused of “endangering public security and causing sedition and public disorder”.

“The frequent detention of journalists undermines the democratic reforms that the Jordanian government had promised”, IPI Executive Board Vice-Chair Daoud Kuttab said. “The detention of journalists for asking critical questions and raising awareness will have a chilling effect. The government has other options to clarify issues rather than arresting journalists. Haddad should be released immediately.”

Following Haddad’s arrest, a protest was held outside the office of the Jordan Journalists’ Syndicate in the capital Amman, calling for his release. In a statement, the syndicate claimed that the state security court does not have jurisdiction over cases related to the freedom of expression.

As part of its efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, the government declared a state of emergency in March 2020, invoking a 1992 Defense Law that gives authorities sweeping powers to impose curfews, close businesses and gag the press.

At least 2 journalists are confirmed to have been arrested by security forces since the pandemic began. On April 10,  Jordanian authorities had detained Roya TV channel owner Fares Sayegh and news director Mohamad al-Khalidi, after the TV channel aired a segment in which people from impoverished neighbourhoods of Amman were seen complaining about the lockdown imposed by the government to contain the spread of COVID-19. Both media executives were released on bail a day later.

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