Roudan, an independent journalist who lives and works in Amman, is one of few woman to head a community broadcast station in Jordan. Radio al-Balad, her media outlet, was the first internet-based community radio station in Jordan.

Roudan has dedicated her professional career to the empowerment of women in journalism through training and financial support. A funding program linked to her training program supports the journalists by covering their part-time salaries for three years. She was given the WIN (women in news) Editorial Leadership award in 2020 for her outstanding work as an editor.

But conservative views on women in the media are not the only challenge that Roudan and her colleagues face. Restrictions on press freedom in Jordan have increased as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 17, 2020, Jordan’s King Abdullah approved an emergency “defence law” that hands Prime Minister Omar Razzaz sweeping powers to enforce a state of emergency and “deal firmly” with anyone who spreads “rumours, fabrications and false news that sows panic” about COVID-19. On the same day the Jordanian Council of Ministers suspended the publication of all newspapers in the country for a two-week period.

In the first six months of the pandemic 13 journalists were arrested in Jordan, according to local reports, while others were beaten by the police, and media coverage was limited in different ways.

IPI spoke to Roudan in length about her work in Jordan and the obstacles she encounters.

IPI: Much of your work is dedicated to supporting the professional development of women in journalism. What do you consider the major challenges and obstacles that they face in Jordan, and do you see any negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard?

Roudan: Let me start by saying that I am very glad to be interviewed by a young woman, involved in journalism and human rights, because this supports the cause, not only in the Arab world but all over the world.

I have been covering gender issues for a long time. I started by telling the stories of women refugees and, later on, when I was covering the Parliament, I realized that even women members of Parliament, or those working in hospitals and many other places, all face similar challenges. So, I decided to use journalism as a means to empower women, by talking about their fate and raising awareness about the problems.

IPI Board member Etaf Roudan in a training on new media with young journalists in Jordan.

The biggest problem I see in Jordan is the gender-based discrimination. Women simply don’t have the same opportunities as men. Often women are not allowed to manage their money as they want and have to deal with a conservative society which precludes women from expressing their opinions.

With social media, the violence, hate speech, hostile comments, and the harassment that we used to experience at community level has shifted to the social media platforms. They (hostile comments) remain present also within the community, but are disseminated more widely by social media platforms, especially if you are a public person or work in the public sphere, as journalists do. Social media attacks are a rather new development. They started before the pandemic but have gotten visibly worse during COVID-19 times.

For example, I often receive comments from people claiming that I am not acting in line with my religious values or even that I act against the rules of my community because of my journalistic work. Other journalists even receive comments about how they should act and what they should wear. I think it is okay to have a different opinion, but it is not okay to insult me for mine.

Sadly, several woman journalists have suffered under these types of attacks and criticism, just as I have.

IPI: In the face of this hostile climate, what motivates you and other women to continue working in journalism? How do you cope with the attacks?

Roudan: In Jordan we have a strong “cyber-crime unit” within the police, where women can bring complaints about online attacks and harassment, and they have strong procedures to deal with these attacks. However, this is mostly for teenage girls and, as a grown woman, and a mother, I prefer to not refer to this mechanism, unless the attacks escalate. So far, I haven’t been filing complaints to the police.

Many women in Jordan remain silent about being a victim of harassment because of the conservative thinking both within society as well as in their own families. They also fear the shame, their image being damaged and that their career would be compromised if they speak about the attacks they receive and show weakness. Also, deep inside we still believe that our community is very conservative and that there is no interest in addressing these problems.

I was fortunate to be born into a less conservative family that has been supportive of my work. We come from a small village and my family has also received criticism because of my journalistic work, but they did not pay attention to that.

IPI Board member Etaf Roudan during a discussion with young women journalists in Jordan.

Sometimes it’s hard and the comments about me not being a good Muslim can hurt so much. But after all I chose my career and am therefore ready to fight the battles that come with it.

Working in the media has also helped me a lot, particularly in community media, because it has given me the rights and the tools to express myself in a strong and powerful way, while also protecting my privacy.

Besides, what keeps me going is the possibility to help young women journalists because I know the sorrow that they have to go through. Also, I have two daughters and countering the hostility that exists in society against women and ensuring that they can practice their profession has become a personal matter for me, because I want my daughters to grow up in a world where they are not afraid of expressing their opinions.

IPI: In addition to being a journalist and a newsroom manager, you also train women journalists. What are the subjects of your training and why have you focused on training women?

Roudan: Since 2011, I have trained around 500 women – Jordanian journalists but also Syrian refugees, Palestinian, even Egyptian journalists. We give them broad media skills, teach them how to be a journalist, and prepare them for the challenges that come with the job. In our sessions we also teach them how to operate safely online and how to adjust their privacy settings on social media.

Additionally, we run a funding program specifically aimed at offering the women who participate in the training a part-time job so that they can complete their education or start their business or support themselves and their families.

I decided to specifically support women journalists because they don’t have the same opportunities and have it much harder than men and deserve a chance to express their opinions.

In my experience, the women I have been working with certainly do not lack commitment or courage. It is only inequality and discrimination that prevents them from becoming good journalists.

IPI: Looking for solutions, what has worked to ensure that the voice of women in journalism is not silenced?

Roudan: I think that the laws have to change. Laws forbidding violence and discrimination against women need to be in place and be enforced more consistently, in order to ensure that women are not afraid anymore. Also, women must have the possibility to file complaints with the police and be heard and not ignored just because they are women. The change has to come from the government and society, which has to be more open and believe in the equality of women. Instead of thinking in a conservative way people should empower and support women.

And we need to be able to talk freely about the attacks and the inequality in society.

IPI: If you could, which one piece of advice would you give yourself at the beginning of your career?

Roudan: If I could, I would tell myself not to be afraid to stand up for myself and for other women in society and that I have enough power to speak up. Which is exactly what I keep telling the young journalists that I train: that they should know their power and that they can speak loudly about their rights.

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South Korea’s governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has introduced an amendment to the Media Arbitration Act that lawmakers claim is intended to combat the spread of false information.

According to multiple reports, if the bill is passed, news outlets and reporters would not only be made to issue corrections for dissemination of false information, but would also be liable to pay punitive damage to the complainant up to five times higher than the amount of actual damage. Media would also carry the burden of proof that any false reports were unintentional.

The DPK plans to push the reform through at a plenary session on August 25.

The new penalties would apply to media outlets that “intentionally” publish false information and where a complainant claims to have suffered harm. However, critics note that the criteria for determining “intention” is vague, and the bill could be used to silence critical reporting of those in power, particularly ahead of the presidential election next March, thus endangering press freedom in South Korea. Experts have also pointed out false news and defamation are already covered in South Korea’s existing civil and criminal laws.

“At a time when authoritarian governments are increasingly adopting so-called ‘fake news’ laws to stifle criticism, it is disappointing to see a democratic country like South Korea follow this negative trend”, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said. “In introducing severe punishments based on highly vague concepts, this proposed law poses a clear threat to press freedom. We urge South Korean lawmakers to withdraw it.”

“In particular, we are extremely concerned that the excessive amount of punitive damages foreseen under this bill will be an invitation for disgruntled individuals to target journalists and media outlets for their work and threaten them with economic ruin. Moreover, the uncertainty attached to the concepts of ‘fake news’ creates an obvious risk of self-censorship in the press.”

Kim Dong-hoon, president of the Journalists Association of Korea, told the South China Morning Post, “The punitive damages system being pushed by the ruling party is bad law and will undermine Korea’s freedom of the press. It is often not possible to know what fake information is. From the perspective of the media, interpretations of truth can vary depending on a person’s biases.”

The Journalists Association of Korea, Kwanhun Club, Korea News Editors’ Association, Korean Association of Newspapers, Korea Internet Newspaper Association and Korea Woman Journalists Association published a joint statement in opposition to the bill and have begun collecting signatures from journalists and other media employees. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry and the National Assembly Research Service along with several other experts have also expressed their concerns over the proposed revision.

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According to media reports, the office of Al Jazeera television network in the Tunisian capital Tunis, was raided by the police this morning. Some 10 heavily armed police officers entered the network’s office without a warrant and asked the staff to leave. When questioned by the staff, the police officials said that the raid was being carried out on the instructions from the government.  The mobile phones and other equipment of reporters were seized, and they were not allowed to enter the building to collect their belonging.

“The raid on Al Jazeera office is a gross violation of press freedom and an act of intimidation to silence independent media”, IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said. “We are seriously concerned that the recent dismissal of the Prime Minister and suspension of Parliament be signs that the country is heading towards autocracy, in which critical and independent media is not tolerated.”

The raid on Al Jazeera took place soon after President Kais Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended the parliament following widespread, violent protests in several cities against the government’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic and faltering economy.

In a statement, the President said that he would assume direct control and rule with the help of the new Prime Minister. While, the President’s decision has been condemned by political parties and the speaker of Parliament, it was celebrated by the protestors in the streets.

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IPI began monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on press freedom in spring 2020. Students at the School of Public Policy at Central European University in Vienna have used IPI’s data to research the public policy implications of the pandemic when it comes to journalism. This article is a guest post by CEU student Mohammad Abu Hawash focusing on the nexus of contact tracing and press freedom.

(Note: This article was written by an external researcher and does not necessarily represent the views of the International Press Institute.)

In January 2021, The Singaporean government was embroiled in a political scandal surrounding the misuse of contact tracing data for the purpose of criminal investigations. The International Press Institute’s COVID-19 tracker picked up this story under its “surveillance/endangering Source Protection” category. Singapore’s three major contact tracing apps, TraceTogether, SafeEntry, and BluePass[1], were not being used solely to monitor users’ contact with COVID-19. Instead, the Singapore police was enjoying mostly unregulated access to the geolocation data of users- as reported by Reuters. The police claim that they were using this data for the purposes of criminal investigations only, but investigations of potential misuse are still ongoing. This is despite previous assertions by the Singapore government that users’ private data was used solely for COVID-19 contact tracing. Reuters highlighted TraceTogether’s claim that “data will only be used for COVID-19 contact tracing,” which was a false statement.

The Singaporean government responded quickly by issuing the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Amendment) Bill. This bill regulates police access to contact data, limiting its use to seven so-called ‘serious offenses.’ The new bill also gives users the right to object to police use of their geolocation data from these apps, although it was not specified how users could file such an objection.

Pitfalls

As contact tracing apps began proliferating last year, tech journalists sounded the alarm. Simon Sharwood wrote in the The Register about the need for an “exit strategy from the overt surveillance of smart phone contact tracing… before we dive in.” Unfortunately, much of the world did not heed Sharwood’s words. Contact tracing apps were developed and rolled out with little in the way of regulations. Therefore, some governments are now acting in hindsight to regulate and control the wealth of data generated from contact tracing apps. The recent developments surrounding contact tracing data in Singapore shine light on the ubiquity of contact tracing apps worldwide and the risks they pose to data privacy. Singapore is by no means the first country to misuse contact tracing data from COVID-19 apps. This is indeed another case of a government experiencing widespread public pressure to extensively regulate the use of user data following revelations of misuse.[2]

Singapore’s revised bill does not prohibit the use of contact tracing data for non-contact tracing purposes, but it does restrict police access to this data. The Singapore police have legal permission to access contact tracing for the purpose of criminal investigations relating to the following seven issues (as stated in the seventh schedule of the amended COVID-19 temporary measures bill):

1. Unlawful use or possession of corrosive and explosive substances, firearms or dangerous weapons.
2. Any offence relating to committing, aiding, conspiring, abetting or financing of acts of terrorism as described in Singaporean law.
3. Any offence relating to causing death or concealment of death, or maliciously or willfully causing grievous bodily harm where the victim’s injury is of a life-threatening nature.
4. Drug-related offenses that are punishable by death under Singaporean law.
5. Any offence relating to escape from custody where there is reasonable belief that the subject will cause imminent harm to others.
6. Kidnapping, abduction or hostage-taking.
7. Any offence involving serious sexual assault such as rape or sexual assault by penetration.

In these situations, it is possible that culprits would have planned their act ahead of time. In such situations, culprits would have most likely disabled, uninstalled, or otherwise took measures to avoid being traced using one of Singapore’s contact tracing apps. This raises questions about the effectiveness of regulation.

While other countries may soon follow Singapore’s example in regulating the use of contact tracing data by law enforcement, such reforms may not be enough even if they address the privacy concerns left unanswered in Singapore’s recently amended bill.

Many countries worldwide suffer from weak judiciaries and compromised law enforcement agencies. In these countries, restricting the use of contact tracing data to ‘serious offenses’ might have adverse effects. For example, if a law enforcement agency wishes to intimidate or surveil an investigative journalist, it could subject them to legal persecutions simply to allow itself access to their contact tracing data.

One of the most concerning cases are those of investigative journalists who are actively investigating law enforcement authorities. These journalists might be put in a situation where they have to distort their own contact tracing data to avoid being tracked or intimidated by corrupt law enforcement officials who abuse police access to contact tracing data. This pandemic began just over a year ago. Therefore, it might take a while until more anecdotes of the misuse of contact tracing data come to light.

State institutions are not the only entities that can misuse contact tracing data. In the Philippines, for example, the National Privacy Commission began an investigation into the misuse contact tracing data by business establishments, as reported by The Philstar Global. One of the outcomes of this investigation is a bulletin that includes answers to FAQs on how businesses can utilize contact tracing data. FAQs help businesses develop a clear and sufficient understanding of government regulations without having to worry about reading legal documents like the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012, Republic Act no.11332, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. Despite the comprehensive Philippine regulatory framework governing contact tracing data collection, the enforcement mechanism of these regulations is lacking. Since before the pandemic, the Philippine privacy law punishes mishandling of data by penalties of up to five million Pesos and as many as six years in prison. Still, business establishments felt that they could risk breaking the law since the enforcement capacity of privacy laws in the Philippines is relatively low. In the Philippines, investigative journalists focusing on business establishments must ensure that their contact tracing data does not get compromised by the business establishments that they are investigating.

Journalists should also keep in mind the nuances of the political system wherever they are operating. In countries with decentralized political systems, such as the United States, regulations differ greatly across the country. According to Todd Ehret for Reuters, California has a robust regulatory framework for contact tracing data but many other parts of the US do not. While the decentralized regulatory framework can be a disadvantage for the US, its decentralized contact tracing system has many advantageous aspects to it. A decentralized contact tracing system reduces the risk of data being compromised. This is because each state has its own regulations and method of storing contact tracing data. Therefore, if a malign actor wanted to access the contact tracing data of the entire US, they would have to hack into approximately 50 jurisdictions – as opposed to just one.

In addition to their responsibility for their own individual security, journalists are also responsible for the protection of their sources. Many journalists around the world rely on confidential sources, without whom they would not be able to operate. Journalists must take additional security measures to avoid compromising their sources through contact tracing data. These sources must receive instructions on how to avoid compromising themselves as well, which will be challenging.

The issue of uptake must also be mentioned. It appears that the US, like Europe, was not seeing enough people voluntarily download contact tracing apps. This made the use of these apps mostly pointless for the fight to curb COVID-19 in communities where not enough people used these apps. So, while making it mandatory for citizens to download a contact tracing app will cause major privacy concerns, not making it mandatory may limit any potential benefits from tracing apps.

Widespread proliferations

Speaking to The Well (a publication at the University of North Carolina –Chapel Hill), Jues Polonetsky said “Anybody who’s dealt with public health is well aware that there isn’t a notion of privacy when you have a communicable disease.” In the same article, another expert, Jay Swaminathan, said “There’s a general fear that when integrated, centralized contact tracing is proposed in some governments and countries, this poses greater risk for individual data privacy and government’s potential future usage.” Both these statements continue to ring true. The next major global policy challenge will be to restore conventional notions of privacy as the COVID-19 pandemic ends while minimizing potential damage from the ubiquity of contact tracing data.

At the height of their popularity in July 2020, COVID-19 contact tracing apps were developed across the globe. Over time, some countries have downgraded or limited the use of such apps either for the same reasons previously mentioned or due to significant declines in COVID-19 cases locally.

While misuse of contact tracing data by law enforcement and corrupt politicians is a major concern, another concern has also arisen: that of fake contact tracing apps. The National Interest reported on a study conducted by Anomali Threat Research (ATR) highlighting the use of Anubis, Spynote, and other ‘generic malware’ in fake contact tracing apps. Exploiting the surge in popularity of those apps, scammers and malicious software programmers designed fake contact tracing apps that claim to be helping users trace their contact with COVID-19. In reality, these apps seek to steal users’ banking credentials and other sensitive data. According to ATR, fake contact tracing apps have emerged in Armenia, India, Brazil, Chhattisgarh, Columbia, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Singapore – and that was only in the first half of 2020. Since last June, tens more fake apps masquerading as contact tracing services emerged around the globe, including in Canada for example.

To address concerns with the trustworthiness of contact tracing applications, media platforms focusing on technology sprung to action. MIT Technology Review, for example, designed a simple rating system that gives contact tracing apps a grade between zero and five stars. The rating is based on the following five questions:

1. Is the service voluntary, or does a state force citizens to download this service?
2. Are there limitations on how the data gets used, and if so what are these limitations?
3. Will Data be destroyed after a period of time?
4. Is data collection minimized?
5. Is the effort transparent?

Proprivacy created a similar rating system where contact tracing apps are given a score out of ten. In addition to MIT Technology Review’s criteria, Proprivacy also asks whether the app relies on Bluetooth or GPS technology, who accesses the data (if such info is available), locations where the data is stored, and whether the app has a privacy framework (BlueTrace, DP-3T, or Apple/Google frameworks).  These two rating systems are easy tools for journalists to learn more about new considerations and security arrangements that they might have to make in light of COVID-19.

In addition to this, universities also sprung to action by tracking the development of contact tracing apps worldwide. The Blavatnik School of Government, in partnership with ourworldindata.org, created a user friendly and freely available tool tracking the development and use of COVID-19 contact tracing apps around the world (see the embedded interactive map or click here).

In the end however, the keys for change are (and always have been) in the hands of the public. Contact tracing apps are only effective if a large-enough collective of people use them. During the pandemic, millions of people downloaded coronavirus tracing apps, either voluntarily or based on local requirements. Theoretically, however, citizens’ trust in tracing apps and willingness to comply with requirements to use them can be taken away in the same way it was given. Even in the most repressive states, if a large-enough group of people uninstalls a COVID-19 contact tracing app or some similar action, the government will be forced to listen and accommodate the public’s grievances because such an act would render the app almost useless. Therefore, policymakers must take action to regulate the use of contact tracing apps before the public takes drastic measures in response to flagrant infringements of the right to privacy. If some countries reach a stage where collective public dissent is needed to end the mandatory use of contact tracing apps, it will already be too late. This is because collective public dissent is a sign of systemic failure in government. Such dissent reflects the failure of policymakers to act in accordance with the public interest.

Perhaps this pandemic will be over before the situation with contact tracing apps deteriorates any further. Much of the world has already stopped using these apps already. However, there are lessons learned here that we should remember for the next time. Contact tracing technology existed long before the pandemic, but never on this scale. Contact tracing software is now a global privacy issue.

Conclusion

Writing for the Fair Observer, Claire Downing described COVID-19 contact tracing as a ‘Wolf in sheep’s clothing’ and questioned whether these apps were necessary for the fight against COVID-19 in the first place. Despite the frequent cases of misuse and the persistent ubiquity of COVID-19 contact tracing data, these apps do not have to remain a part of our lives. Whether they are effective in the fight against COVID-19 or not, a society should have the right to choose not to use contact tracing apps if they pose a significant threat to the freedoms and safety of citizens. Until then, journalists must remain vigilant in ensuring their personal security and the confidentiality of their research.

Implications

While writing this article, I came to understand contact tracing technology differently. Conceptually, contact tracing methods have existed for as long as humans have known about communicable diseases. Public health experts of our contemporary times inherited this concept from older civilizations that experienced pandemics. The utilization of geolocation data revolutionized the concept of contact tracing. In doing so, it created new risks that public health administrators and professionals are still contending with.

Our societies at-large are still comprehending the consequences of contact tracing on our privacy. As we reflect on the implications of the proliferation of contact tracing technology, we should also think about those who work in fields that require contact tracing on a daily basis. Long before the pandemic, many workers – especially blue-collar workers – were contractually obligated to share their geolocation data with their employers. Indeed many of the contact tracing apps used in Singapore (where my investigation started) were originally designed to track the movements of workers of different professions between their residence and workplace. As governments lift the mandates for contact tracing apps, these workers will continue to share their private geolocation data. In what situations are we as a society going to accept the use of contact tracing?

[1] The latter two apps existed before the pandemic and were initially used by workers to log entry and exit at their workplace but were repurposed to be used for COVID-19 contact tracing.

[2] Another example where the use of contact tracing data faced a strong public backlash is in the United States, as exemplified by this Vox article.

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According to news reports, Rozina Islam, a senior reporter of Prothom Alo, a leading  national newspaper, was arrested in the capital Dhaka yesterday and faces charges under the Penal Code and Official Secrets Act for the theft and photographing of sensitive state documents.

News reports said that Islam was formally arrested after being detained for more than five hours in the office of the Ministry of Health in the Central Secretariat Building. This morning the police requested the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka for a five-day remand to interrogate her, but the Magistrate rejected the plea and ordered Islam to be sent to prison.

“We are greatly concerned that the arrest of Rozina Islam is in retaliation for her investigation into corruption related to Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health”, IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi said. “Islam was doing her job as a journalist to investigate and expose corruption and speak truth to power. As a democracy, Bangladesh should respect the right of journalists rather than silencing their voices to hide corruption in the government.”

IPI further called for the immediate release of the journalist.

The police alleged that Islam was using her mobile phone to photograph documents related to Bangladesh’s vaccine purchase at the health ministry. “She was also taking away some documents. An additional secretary and a policeman challenged her at the time”, Madul Islam Propdhan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said.

Islam is known for her reports about corruption in the government and in the recent months she has been writing about the corruption involving the Ministry of Health and its expenditures on procurement of equipment to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Islam’s family has alleged that she had been physically and mentally harassed while she was confined to a room in the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, journalists in Bangladesh have protested against Islam’s arrest. The Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum (BSRF) and Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum (BHRF) today boycotted a press briefing organized by the Health Ministry.

Press freedom and safety of journalists have suffered a severe setback in Bangladesh as well as in its neighbouring countries in South Asia. On March 4, cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore was released on bail after spending 10 months in prison over his Facebook post on COVID-19 pandemic. He was arrested in May 2020 together with writer Mushtaq Ahmed and prosecuted under Digital Security Act. While Ahmed died in jail at the end of February this year, Kishore claimed that he was tortured and kept in unpleasant conditions in prison.

According to IPI’s COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker, so far over 100 violations have been reported from four South Asian countries, including 12 cases in Bangladesh.

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Since February 5, 2020, IPI’s COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker has recorded 620 press freedom violations around the world. Some 34 percent of these reports were about physical and verbal attacks on journalists, while 33.5 percent were about the arrests of journalists or charges filed against journalists and media organizations by governments. Some 14 percent of all the cases of violations relate to restrictions on access to information imposed by the governments.

Regional disaggregation of data shows that the highest number of violations related to arrests and charges were in the Asia-Pacific region, whereas physical and verbal attacks on journalists were the highest in Europe.

While the Press Freedom Tracker is likely unable to capture every press freedom violation related to COVID-19, the data clearly illustrate the pandemic’s impact on the exercise of journalism around the world.

Overall, 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 in those countries, while 32 cases of physical attacks and verbal threats were reported.

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 attack. The Indian government resorted to various tactics to prevent independent media from criticizing the government and reporting about the pandemic. In neighbouring Bangladesh and Nepal several journalists were arrested, and cases were filed against them.

Africa ranks second in terms of arrests and charges against journalists and media outlets. Zimbabwe reported the greatest number of arrests in the region, including that of prominent investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. He was first arrested in July last year and once again in January this year for exposing COVID-related procurement fraud within the country’s health ministry.

An alarming number of physical and verbal attacks on journalists were recorded in Europe. A total 106 cases of attacks have been registered, of which more than 80 percent were by members of the public.

A recent IPI briefing on Europe lists Hungary, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina as countries where new emergency restrictions or limitations on access to information threatened to impede media freedom. Turkey, which currently has 64 journalists in prison, refused to heed calls by human rights organizations to release them despite the threat of infection in prison.

In the Americas region as many as 117 violations were recorded, of which 31 cases were of verbal or physical attacks on journalists. Twenty-four journalists were arrested or charged and 22 incidents of denial of access to information were reported from the region. Venezuela and Honduras were among the top countries in terms of press freedom violations.

While some governments acknowledged that journalists and media outlets play a critical role in disseminating necessary information to help contain the crisis, many states imposed excessive measures that created impediments, preventing the media from reporting about the increasing number of cases and the shortcomings in official responses.

In several countries, journalists from independent media were denied access to press briefings and regulations were imposed to compel media organizations to report data provided by the government. In Azerbaijan, the government brought in a new law to prosecute publications that published ‘inaccurate’ information about COVID-19 and Turkmenistan banned the use of word COVID-19.

As many as 19 jurisdictions enacted new laws to clamp down on “fake news” and disinformation about the health emergency, which imposed restrictions on the media. Most recently, the Malaysian government took advantage of emergency powers to bypass parliament and introduce a regressive new regulation providing up to three years in prison for “fake news” on the pandemic or the state of emergency itself. Russia introduced legislation that imposes a fine of up to €21,000 and a five-year prison term for spreading “false information”. Other countries like Algeria, Bolivia, Cambodia and Uzbekistan, have brought in similar measures.

China, where the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, led the way in clamping down on the coverage of the pandemic. The government targeted independent reporters and citizen journalists who had exposed the extent of the infection. Many citizen journalists were detained, and the country also expelled foreign correspondents from leading international news organizations. It also supressed critical social media posts and restricted access to foreign news by blocking VPNs in the country.

As part of efforts to contain the virus, states introduced new surveillance measures, including the tracking of mobile phones, the use of track-and-trace apps and the expanded use of facial recognition. Singapore was the first country to announce that its track-and-trace app would be used for criminal investigations too. The increase in surveillance tools, even when ostensibly designed for public health purposes, raises serious concerns about the future of source protection and journalists’ privacy rights.

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Musengi’s arrest was a harbinger of Zimbabwe’s coming efforts to silence critical reporting during the pandemic, which have included a number of arbitrary detentions. According to the International Press Institute’s (IPI) COVID-19 tracker, Zimbabwe tops the list of African countries with the most pandemic-related press freedom violations.

Prominent investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono has been arrested three times during the past eight months. In January this year he spent almost three weeks in jail after being accused of sharing false information on Twitter about alleged police violence during the  enforcement of lockdown measures. Chin’ono was released on bail on January 27.

He was arrested in July for the first time after publishing an article revealing COVID-19 procurement fraud within the Health Ministry. On that occasion, he spent six weeks in prison before being granted bail in September.

“There is a climate of fear in the Zimbabwean media industry caused by the frequent arrests of prominent journalists such as Hopewell Chin’ono. While certain repressive legal instruments have been repealed in the last three years, senior government officials continue to use threats of arrests and unspecified actions against journalists to curtal press freedom”, Kholwani Nyathi, the editor of the weekly newspaper The Standard, told IPI, adding that the arrests have already engendered self-censorship in the media industry.

At least two employees of The Standard have been detained for allegedly defying lockdown regulations. “This affects the morale of reporters and the quality of their journalism”, Nyathi said.

High Court ruling didn’t stop harassment

In addition to arrests, many reporters have been harassed, intimidated and attacked due to their job. According to the recent media report published by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), in Zimbabwe COVID-19 has led to an upsurge of police and military violence against media workers.

In April last year the Zimbabwean High Court ordered the police to stop harassment, arrests and detentions of journalists working during the lockdown to carry out their lawful duties. Particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, journalists faced challenges because of outdated press accreditation cards as they had not received the new ones yet. Officials were therefore asked to let reporters work with their 2019 cards.

After the ruling, the arrests of journalists slowed, but soon other kinds of harassment came into the picture, Tabani Moyo, the executive director of MISA Zimbabwe, told IPI.

“You journalists think you are special in this country”, soldiers reportedly remarked in June before assaulting freelance journalists Munashe Chokdoza and Leopold Munhende, who were on their way from work. Both of them suffered injuries after the attack, which took place at a local shopping centre in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

“The number of incidents is too high to be about the confusion of authorities. There is a strategy”, Moyo said.

Media workers have also experienced the government as an uncooperative partner when it comes to access to information. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, it was unclear for many reporters what kind of disease they were actually reporting about as officials were not willing to answer follow up questions in press briefings, Moyo said.

In February of this year, freelance journalists Godfrey Mtimba and Tonderai Sharo were reportedly barred from covering the rollout of the vaccination program near the town of Masvingo.  “The government regularly updates the media on its COVID-19 response, but there are lingering fears that authorities hide critical information especially around contracts for vaccines and personal protective equipment”, Nyathi said.

In total MISA Zimbabwe reported violations against 52 media workers, including journalists, vendors and media students in 2020. The amount is more than two times higher than in 2019. In most of the cases related to COVID-19, reporters were arrested or charged with allegedly violating virus-related restrictions, IPI’s tracker shows.

The trend can be seen also in the recent report from Human Rights Watch, according to which Zimbabwe has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to using COVID-19 as an excuse to crack down on journalists. “I have had subtle threats directed at me on social media by some government officials and anonymous accounts that support the government each time we have published stories that make the authorities uncomfortable”, Nyathi told IPI.

At the end of July armed police and state security agents raided the home of investigative journalist Mduduzi Mathuhu on suspicion of “organizing and advocating illegal demonstrations against the government of Zimbabwe”. Because Mathuhu wasn’t home during the roundup, police arrested one of his family members.

Constant safety concerns

MISA has been monitoring the challenges facing the media for the past year, and Moyo thinks that so far the support media workers have received during the pandemic has not been enough. Journalists have not been given sufficient protective equipment against the virus, not to mention financial assistance or mental health help.

Moyo is therefore worried in particular about the psychological impact of COVID-19 on journalists. “These have been the most stressful periods for journalists, and have increased levels of anxiety. People are not knowing what will happen tomorrow.”

In Zimbabwe many journalists have already died because of the virus, Moyo said. For him it is a clear sign of the fact that journalists are constantly putting themselves in danger while reporting.

Concerns have also risen over the conditions of Zimbabwe’s often overcrowded prisons. Hopewell Chin’ono, for example, was held in the Chikurubi high-security prison in the outskirts of Harare, where conditions have been described as inhumane.

Rapid digital change

The pandemic has also created a financial crisis in the media industry. The biggest challenge has been the lack of advertisement, Nyathi thinks. Many outlets have already been forced to cut down their costs and lay off employees.

The pandemic has also affected the distribution of print media. As part of measures to curb the virus – whether effective or not –  distribution via news agents was put on hold, so newspapers and magazines had to focus less on printing. For many outlets it meant a compelled transition to digital platforms.

The Standard, for example, has been distributing the paper in PDF format to paid subscribers via email. Nyathi said that it has helped attract new subscribers, who previously didn’t have the access to the physical paper.

But the reduction in print obviously creates problems as well. “Some of the challenges we faced included the fact that for several weeks we could not sell the newspaper on the streets and this affected the bottom line”, Nyathi said.

According to the World Bank, in 2019 less than 30 percent of Zimbabweans had access to the internet, which means the existence of print products is still very crucial for news organizations. Moyo thinks that for some newspapers the rapid change will already be too much for some media. “The new ecosystem is a serious challenge. Some news organizations might collapse, and it’s our biggest fear”, he said.

Moyo thinks that in the long run the financial crisis will have a strong impact on the quality of journalism. He says that already multiple media organizations are leaning more and more on young journalism students or interns who haven’t received enough education on media ethics or on other important issues. This has decreased citizens’ trust in media, Moyo said, which was already low before COVID-19.

New broadcasting licenses don’t guarantee pluralism

Zimbabwe’s media have faced other challenges, too. On the surface, a positive change occurred when the local broadcasting authority, BAZ, announced the country’s first-ever licenses for several commercial television stations. For 40 years the airwaves had been monopolized by the state broadcaster ZBC.

Even though the licenses in theory bring new opportunities to media in Zimbabwe, experts have expressed their concerns over a lack of pluralism in the license allocation. According to MISA, all the new license holders already have a print or broadcasting license or are linked to the government or ruling party.

“If Zimbabwe is to have a truly diverse media, there is a need for more players from different backgrounds to be granted licenses. With this (current) scenario, the country risks having a homogeneity of news and views, which is anathema to democracy”, MISA Zimbabwe stated in its report. Nyathi shares MISA’s concern. He is afraid that the broadcasting sector will remain closed to all independent media.

Hard work defending press freedom must go on even after the pandemic

In March 2021 the pandemic has showed some signs of easing in Zimbabwe as the daily number of new cases has been decreasing. All in all around 40,000 COVID-19 infections have been reported. Over the last couple of weeks the daily toll of reported new cases has been around 30.

Moyo is evidently relieved about the positive change and said that a parallel development could be seen in the behaviour of the authorities as well. At the end of January, the High Court ordered the ministers of health and information to “widely disseminate comprehensive and adequate information” on testing, isolation and treatment of the disease. The ruling followed MISA’s urgent application to the court in which it claimed that the information had so far been incomplete.

At the same time Moyo knows that the work defending free press and the freedom of expression in Zimbabwe will continue. As an example he mentioned that all elections and electoral activity, such as demonstrations, have been suspended during the pandemic. In addition, the government has proposed new laws, such as cybersecurity bill, which was proposed in March 2020, and is considered to open the door to strong surveillance of the public and diminish rights to freedom of expression and privacy of personal data.

Moyo says that those types of laws also pose a significant challenge on democracy in Zimbabwe. “Post pandemic won’t be business as usual.”

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The country’s government implemented the law under emergency powers imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In doing so, it circumvented the Malaysian parliament, which was suspended earlier this year as part of the state of emergency. The move comes as the country struggles with a high number of COVID-19 cases and as well as growing criticism of the government’s response.

Authorities announced the regulation on March 11, and it came into effect the next day. The government justified the law by stating that it was necessary to combat misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new regulation prescribes fines of up to 100,000 Malaysian ringgit (about 20,000 euros) and a three-year prison sentence for creating, publishing or circulating “fake news” related to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the state of emergency itself. It allows law enforcement access to personal data and encryption codes, as well as the capability to search any electronic device they deem necessary to conduct their investigation, along with fines for anyone refusing to cooperate.

At the same time, the law fails to clearly define what constitutes “fake news,” opening the door to criminal prosecution of otherwise legitimate reporting, as well as arbitrary arrests and investigations.

“Malaysia’s new ‘fake news’ law, which was conveniently ushered into law using emergency powers and therefore bypassing democratic checks and balances, represents a severe threat to journalism and free expression”, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said. “Lacking any proper safeguards, the new regulation is an invitation to disproportionate interference with journalists’ right to publish news and information that is critical of the government or that clashes with official viewpoints.”

“It is highly regrettable that Malaysia, which has promoted its democratic credentials in the past, has now joined a list of authoritarian states around the world that have misused the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent states of emergencies to usher in new laws to censor free expression. IPI calls on the Malaysian government to urgently revoke this regulation.”

Strong local criticism

In an interview with the Free Malaysia Today news outlet, the president of the Malaysian Bar Council, Salim Bashir, called the imposition of the new law “disturbing” and criticized the government for taking advantage of the state of emergency to enforce laws. He also admonished “vague definitions” of “fake news”, which would include anything related to Covid-19 and the state of emergency.

Similarly, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) said it was “shocked and appalled” by the new regulation and called on the government “to stop using the emergency proclamation to stifle any criticism of the current administration”.

As the CIJ also noted, in the new law, sections of the previous Anti-Fake News Act of 2018, which was revoked under the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, were reintroduced under the current state of emergency.

This follows several recent threats to press freedom in Malaysia, such as the raid on Al Jazeera’s offices in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysian police last year and the fine imposed on the news website Malaysiakini in February for publishing readers’ comments on its website.

As monitored through IPI’s COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker, Malaysia is among 18 countries that have passed new “fake news” laws or imposed harsher penalties for alleged misinformation about the pandemic as well as government actions to combat it.

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Heraldo de Aragón is a regional daily newspaper in Spain founded 125 years ago and published in Zaragoza, in the country’s northeast Aragón province. It has the highest circulation in its distribution area. In 2011, it founded Hiberus, a technological company specializing in digital transformation to tackle the challenges posed by the digital disruption. In 2016, Heraldo de Aragón created Henneo, Spain’s seventh-largest communication group, which currently runs Heraldo de Aragón, Diario del Altoaragón, Radio Huesca, the free daily newspaper 20 Minutos, the monthly film magazine Cinemania, and La Información, a digital newspaper focusing on business and economic current affairs.

This article mainly focuses on the regional daily Heraldo de Aragón, Henneo’s largest news outlet. Its digital edition, Heraldo.es, caters mostly to readers of local and regional news – about 70 percent of the website traffic – but the paper’s aim is to offer a complete news product, including national news and an analysis of its regional impact. “What sets us apart is our focus on local and regional news, but there has always been, and will be, space for everything else”, Miguel Madrid, Henneo’s chief digital officer, told the International Press Institute (IPI).

Since the advent of digital news media, Heraldo de Aragón has fostered close collaboration with other small media outlets across Spain to be relevant in the highly competitive digital landscape. Betting on an advertising-oriented model, the network’s first project was a content recommendation engine, followed up by the introduction of local and regional advertising across all outlets. This experience led to the creation of a single sign-on (SSO) called LoVer (Local and Vertical), the foundation for a programmatic advertising system and paywall aimed at reducing costs and sharing experiences to sustain their journalism.

“By having people signed in on the same platform, we were able to easily segment users without depending on cookies, which will disappear in 2022”, Madrid said. In January 2020, they launched a new joint venture called Alayans, the culmination of the LoVer project. “For the past four or five years, we have been working on strengthening the technological side. We believe that the real value of our local media outlets is not volume, but loyal readers”, Madrid said. “We started to build a big data platform to collect information and generate tailored content to monetize our proposal.” This robust technological infrastructure has helped them weather the worst effects of the coronavirus pandemic, reaching out to a wider audience.

The members of Alayans consist of several news organizations with a total of 20 local newspapers. They share users, registrations strategies, content production – including multimedia content – and advertising management. “What the platform does is segmentation and user analysis. We share technology, staff, and other resources, and we also do benchmarking. If an email has worked for Heraldo, I share that experience with a local media outlet from Salamanca because we believe it may work there, too”, Madrid said.

Impact on journalism

But what impact does this platform have on journalism? “From a content point of view, and always referring to Heraldo.es, we use the data to guide our newsrooms in their day-to-day”, Madrid said. “We have changed how we present our data to our editors. Instead of volume, we focus on the content that is most interesting to the loyal readers of their sections. That generates a virtuous circle that allows us to identify what local content is the strongest. Considering that around 85 percent of our traffic is local, what works for us is anything close to our readers.”

This strategy has increased the time readers spend on the website and, most importantly, the number of times they return for more content. “Something beautiful that is happening now is that data is helping us reinforce local journalism and interconnect a growing number of local and regional media.”

Newsletters are also a valuable tool. “Readers like them because they use a specific journalistic language and a different headline. We are generating different areas of interest”, Madrid explained. Heraldo.es is currently sending 12 newsletters on Covid-19, tourism, and gastronomy, among other topics. “We have an average opening ratio of 45 to 50 percent, which is high for a newsletter. I think that is because they are written by journalists”, Madrid said.

Surveys are the outlet’s favourite tool to communicate with readers and to provide relevant content through newsletters. “We have about 4,000 users who systematically answer these surveys and suggest improvements”, Madrid explained. “They also allow us to know where we are doing well and where we are doing badly.”

The future 

Heraldo.es expects to set up a paywall early next year. “The idea is to use big data to find out what content readers are loyal to and put that content behind a paywall”, Madrid told IPI. “The subscription model is closely linked to content, and we believe that what we do is valuable and that it should be paid for. On the other hand, we also want to be relevant in our community, so we are now thinking in terms of different audiences, of sections and subsections. We know the kind of content those audiences are interested in; we know how to create that content and how to deliver it.”

Heraldo.es plans to set up a customized paywall, enabled by its in-house technological platform, which is currently being used by 11 media outlets. “This technology allows us to choose any paywall model that we want”, Madrid said. “We think it’s important to combine metered paywalls and paid content and go freemium. At any rate, a paywall is an intelligent tool associated to our users and their interests, and our system helps us to differentiate and create a customized paywall for each user”.

Heraldo.es has also employed other strategies to monetize its news products. For two years, the newspaper has published a series focusing on depopulation in rural areas in Aragón. Late last year, this series received the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award given by the newspaper El País. “We gathered it all together in book format and sent a newsletter to people who had read this content”, Madrid recounted. “We have sold out the 600 copies that we printed.” Also, Heraldo.es runs the HClub, which includes subscription bundles, promotions, and a shop selling a wide range of products, from books to custom jewellery, all of them linked to Heraldo de Aragón.

During the pandemic, the newspaper took part in a furlough scheme, hampering its efforts to cover all the news. However, the paper’s loyal readership – readers who visit the page over 20 times a month – has almost doubled since the outbreak of the pandemic, going from 250,000 to 450,000. “That confirms that readers come to local and regional media outlets for relevant information”, Madrid concluded.

• Click here to read more from IPI’s new reporting series Media Freedom in Europe in the Shadow of Covid

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Nearly 500 press freedom violations in connection with COVID-19 have taken place this year, according to the International Press Institute (IPI)‘s COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker.

Since March, IPI has monitored attacks on journalists and limitations on press freedom related to the ongoing pandemic. IPI today re-launched its monitoring database, the IPI COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker, with new features, including a filter function. Users can sort the individual press freedom alerts by type of violation – including arrest, limitations on access to information, or physical attack – as well as country and region.

The alerts show that governments have sought to stifle independent coverage of the pandemic, despite the importance of media freedom for public health measures. Journalists have faced restrictions accessing data on the pandemic or speaking with healthcare workers, been denied access to press conferences; and jailed for covering coronavirus-related corruption.  At least 17 countries have passed “fake news” laws under the guise of stopping the spread of disinformation. More recently, journalists have been targeted with violence from anti-lockdown demonstrators.

Visit the IPI COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker.

Work on the new version of the IPI COVID-19 Press Freedom Tracker is supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom: European Dialogue.

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