Censored

We have the laws and institutions to fight attempts at information control By David Kaye Yevgeny Zamyatin’s strikingly original 1920s Russian novel We gets read far less than its canonical English-language descendants, Brave New World and 1984. Yet George Orwell knew of and clearly drew from Zamyatin’s book in creating 1984. The homage-paying is obvious:…

The Kenyan government withdraws advertising when newspapers step out of line By Alan Rusbridger In some parts of the world, it is still possible to silence a journalist with a sharp blow to the side of the head. But as newspapers the world over struggle with the financial disruption of digital technologies, governments are finding…

North Korea masks deep censorship by admitting foreign reporters By Jessica Jerreat North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s absolute grip on the flow of public information and deadly approach to dissent have made the country one of the most brutally censored in the world.

Outdated laws and limited, expensive internet access slow the island nation’s progress By Carlos Lauría Cuba’s media landscape has begun opening up in recent years, transformed by a lively blogosphere, an increasing number of news websites carrying investigative reporting and news commentary, and an innovative breed of independent reporters who are critical of, yet still…

How much should journalists hold back when covering terrorism in Europe? By Jean-Paul Marthoz European journalists are on edge. Since the brutal execution of eight colleagues at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, they have become acutely aware that they are in the firing line of extremists.

Mexican journalists navigate threats and censorship by cartels By Elisabeth Malkin Adrián López Ortiz, the general director of Grupo Noroeste, a media group that owns the newspaper Noroeste in the northwestern Mexican city of Culiacán, was driving home from the airport in April 2014 when an SUV intercepted him. Two armed men got out and…

Collusion by the Turkish media compounds the country’s crisis By Andrew Finkel Turkey’s bloody, failed military coup on July 15, 2016, and the ruthless crackdown that followed are testament to the country’s escalating crisis of democracy. Though the crisis had been developing for years, with journalists and independent media outlets facing intense legal pressures from…

Russia tries to emulate Beijing’s model of information control By Emily Parker Russia has embarked on an ambitious social experiment. Just a few years ago, Russians had a mostly free internet. Now Moscow is looking toward Beijing, trying to imitate the Chinese model of internet control. Yet the Kremlin will likely find that once you…

Journalists’ online activity could hurt their financial standing under a new Chinese plan By Yaqiu Wang In what would be a uniquely daunting form of censorship, the Chinese government is making plans to link journalists’ financial credibility to their online posts.

Governments use copyright laws and Twitter bots to curb criticism on social media By Alexandra Ellerbeck On July 10, 2016, Ecuadoran journalist Bernardo Abad tweeted that the former vice-president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, had not paid income taxes for the year before. A week later, Abad received a message from Twitter saying his account had…