The Economist - UK (2022-05-07)

58 International TheEconomistMay7th 2022

they use all the power of the state, includ­

ing  new  powers  granted  by  advancing

technology, to ensure that these voices are

barely audible, while pro­regime media are

lavishly favoured and funded.

For such leaders, the covid­19 pandemic

has  been  handy.  New  rules  in  countries

such as Bolivia, Russia and the Philippines

punish  the  spread  of  “false  information”

about the virus with jail time. Brazil has re­

stricted access to government data. And re­

porters  working  from  home,  often  on  un­

protected  personal  devices,  are  more  vul­

nerable  to  cyber­attack.  A  study  covering

144 countries suggests that pandemic poli­

cies  have  been  used  to  justify  curbs  on

press freedom in 96 of them.

Financial pressure on independent me­

dia  can  be  effective not  least  because  the

news  industry  has  been  in  decline  since

the 1980s. Advertising has followed readers

online,  where  the  duopoly  of  Google  and

Meta  laps  up  half  of  all  revenues.  PwC,a

consultancy,  predicts  that  global  newspa­

per  advertising,  in  print  and  online,  will

fall by about 20% between 2019 and 2024. 

Against  that  backdrop,  governments

can cripple critical outlets by withholding

advertisingand leaning on private firms to

do  likewise.  Meanwhile,  they  subsidise

more servile competitors. In Mexico Presi­

dentAndrés  Manuel  López  Obrador  has

squeezed local media by slashing the gov­

ernment  advertising  budget.  The  money

the  state  does  spend  is  concentrated  with

friendly  outlets: more  than  half  of  its  ad­

vertising goes to ten media groups, accord­

ing  to  one  analysis  of  the  2020  budget.  In

India  advertisers  are  often  frightened  to

back outlets critical of the ruling party. 

Another common trick is for regimes to

nudge  friendly  plutocrats,  who  often  de­

pend  on  official  patronage  for  their  for­

tunes,  to  buy  up  independent  media  and

neuter them. This has happened in Russia,

Turkey  and  Hungary,  among  other  coun­

tries. Since Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime

minister,  took  office  in  2010,  his  cronies

have snapped up private media groups and

turned them into ruling­party mouthpiec­

es.  Some  have  donated  their  media  hold­

ings to a pro­government organisation run

by former lawmakers for Mr Orbán’s Fidesz

party.  Called  the  Central  European  Press

and  Media  Foundation  (kesma),  this  con­

glomerate  now  controls  over  500  outlets.

Mr  Orbán  won  a  fourth  term  in  office  last

month, thanks in no small part to his grip

on  the  public’s  understanding  of  reality.

The  opposition  got  almost  no  airtime,  ex­

cept to be denounced as stooges of a Jewish

billionaire  supposedly  conspiring  against

the Hungarian way of life.

Hungary’s  journalists  have  not  given

up. Telex, a news site, has a similar origin

story to the Kyiv Independent. It was found­

ed  in  Budapest  two  years  ago  when  more

than  80  staff  jumped  ship  from  a  media

grouprunbyanOrbánally.“Weknewthat

wecannotrelyonadvertisingrevenue,be­

causeofthepoliticalinfluenceofthead­

vertisementmarket,”saysVeronikaMunk,

co­founderofTelex.“Sowedecided,‘OK,

let’sturntoourreaders.’”

TelexappealedfordonationsviaYou­

Tube,andtobuildtrustwithitsaudienceit

began sharing detailed information on

revenuesandspendingonline.Intherun­

uptotherecentelection,Telexreporting

stoodinstarkcontrasttothatbygovern­

ment­ledgroups.MrOrbán’steamdidn’t

share detailsabouthiscampaignevents

with independent media.Itpainted the

prime ministerasaman ofthepeople,

posting videos ofhim pushinghis way

throughcrowdsoffans,glad­handing.Tel­

exreportersaskedreaderswholearnedof

comingcampaigneventstotipthemoff,

thenlingeredoutside.Theycapturedim­

agesofMrOrbándrivingthroughempty

streets, closely guarded by security, to

speakattinyinvitation­onlygatherings.

Thestoryvanishes

Hungaryshowshowpressfreedomcanbe

curtailedina countrythatisstill,moreor

less,a democracy—criticalvoicessuchas

Telex reachfar fewerpeoplethan state­

backed propaganda outlets. In truly au­

thoritarian regimes such as China the

muzzleisfar tighter.Technologyhasal­

lowedtheCommunistPartytosnoopand

censorona scaleandwitha precisionthat

wouldhavebeenextremelyhardtoachieve

withoutmorebruteforceevena fewyears

ago.Itisnotjustcriticismofofficialsthat

isofflimits.Topicslikeracismandfemi­

nismcanbeaswell.Membersofthepublic

canbeterrifiedtospeaktoreporters.And

when reporters and their sources put

themselvesatrisktoproduceinvestigative

journalism, sharingthosestoriescanbe

nearimpossible.Inthemidstofacovid

lockdowninShanghaiinApril,Caixin,a

Chinesemediagroup,postedanarticleex­

posinghiddendeathsatthecity’slargest

elderly­carehospital.Itlastedonlinefor

justanhour,thenvanished.

Thisclimateoffearisnowenveloping

HongKong,whichuntilrecentlyallowed

relativelyfreespeech.A“nationalsecuri­

ty”lawintroducedinJune 2020 threatens

severepenalties,includinglifesentences,

forvaguelydefinedcrimes,suchassubver­

sion,thatjournalistsmightconsiderjust

doingtheirjob.“Tosimplycontinueatthe

moment feels like a revolutionary act,”

saysTomGrundy,editoroftheHongKong

FreePress, thelastindependentEnglish­

languagenewsoutletthere.Theeffect,he

says,canbeinsidious.“Yougetintrusive

thoughtswhenit comesto,youknow,self­

censorship,”hesays.“Youcan’thelpit.Just

cringingwhenyoupresspublish.”

TheHongKongauthorities’campaign

toshutdownAppleDaily, a pro­democracy

tabloid,andsilenceitsbillionaireowner,

JimmyLai,hasprovideda templateforre­

pressiveregimeseverywhere.The attack

wasfinancial,legalandtechnological.

MarkSimon,anaidetoMrLai,saysthe

harassmentbeganmorethan 20 yearsago.

Theauthoritiespressedlocalbusinessmen

tostopadvertisingwithAppleDaily. Other

independentnewsoutletsweregradually

boughtoutbypro­Beijingtycoons.Execu­

tives’emailswererepeatedlyhacked.But

therealcrackdowncamewiththenational

securitylaw.MrLaiwaschargedwith“for­

eigncollusion”andarrested.Policeflood­

edtheAppleDailynewsroom,seizinglap­

topsandharddrives.Thedeathknellcame

inJune,whenthegroup’sbankaccounts

werefrozen.“Itwasn’tdeathbya thousand

cuts,”MrSimonsays.“Itwastenwhacks.”

ThereportersatAppleDailyfoundcre­

ative ways to resist, though only for a

while. When the Hong Kong police

swoopedintothenewsroomanddemand­

edstafftellthemwheretheserverswere,

Nodata

Good Satisfactory Problematic Difficult Very serious

Continental grift

Press-freedom index, 2022

(Rank out of 18 countries)

Source:ReportersWithoutBorders

China(175)

Russia (155)

Norway (1)

US (2)