The Economist May 7th 2022 International 59they were infuriated by the response: “in
the cloud”. The it team weren’t joking. Ap-
ple Dailyhad switched to a secure cloud
based publishing system managed by the
Washington Post. Meanwhile, female staff
took advantage of the fact that the cops
were all men, rushing to the restroom and
sending the day’s stories to editors in Tai
wan via Facebook. But then the bank ac
counts were frozen, and Apple Dailyfolded.
When the final issue was printed, Hong
Kongers queued at the newsstands and
bought a million copies, more than ten
times the usual sales.
Another threat to press freedom is com
mon even in places where journalists are
generally respected, such as western Eu
rope. Rich and powerful folk with things to
hide have found that overstrict libel laws
and vaguely drafted privacy rules can be
used to deter nosy journalists. “Strategic
lawsuits against public participation”, or
slapps, are claims that aim to exhaust pub
lications’ time and resources. Those un
able to meet legal costs are forced to take
down content and often stop reporting on
the individuals suing them.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese in
vestigative journalist known as a “one
woman WikiLeaks” for her coverage of cor
ruption and moneylaundering, spent al
most every day of the last year of her life in
court. Even the carbombing that assassi
nated her in 2017 did not stop the harass
ment. Her son, Matthew Caruana Galizia,
who with the rest of the family inherited
the cases, recalls a hearing just a few days
after Ms Galizia died, when the courtroom
was filled by top officials; some of them
had brought cases against his mother for
her reporting. “This was only designed for
one thing: to intimidate my family into
shutting up,” Mr Galizia says.
In a push to stop such misuse of the le
gal system, the European Commission
sketched out new rules in April that would
allow reporters to appeal to the courts to
have bogus cases thrown out. In European
countries, which lag behind places like
Canada, Australia and some American
states in the development of antislapp
legislation, a group of nonprofit groups
identified around 570 such potential cases
filed between 2010 and 2021. The list is not
exhaustive but it does point to a trend:
those bringing the cases are often politi
cians or public servants, and they often tar
get independent journalists.
Like the law, free speech itself, aug
mented by technology, has been turned
against journalists. Social media provide a
platform for hate campaigns that can wear
down the most hardnosed correspondent.
Women have it particularly bad. A survey
last year found almost threequarters of fe
male journalists have experienced some
form of online abuse, including surveil
lance and threats of sexual violence.
Rana Ayyub, an Indian commentator
who loudly admonishes Prime Minister
Narendra Modi for stoking antiMuslim vi
olence, has endured a campaign of intimi
dation by his supporters. Hindu
nationalist trolls have superimposed her
face onto pornographic videos, called for
her murder, and shared her home address
online. Fear of attack has confined Ms Ayy
ub to her home for long spells.Unable to
eat from the anxiety, she has spent days on
end in bed and been fed through an intra
venous drip. “It’s a living, breathing night
mare for me and my family,” she says.Where Putin is winning
As journalism has moved online, govern
ments have found new ways to censor it.
China’s “great firewall” lets the Communist
Party block nearly any content it dislikes.
Other regimes sometimes use cruder
methods. A report in mid2021 by Freedom
House, a watchdog, found that 20 out of 70
countries had shut down the internet in
the previous year to keep their citizens in
the dark, typically during periods of un
rest. States are increasingly using digital
means to snoop on reporters, too. An in
vestigation last year revealed that almost
200 journalists had been targeted by Pega
sus spyware, which is sold by an Israeli
company to governments across the globe.
Journalists are fighting technology
with technology. They conduct interviews
on encrypted messaging apps, like Signal
or Telegram. To protect whistleblowers
with access to important information, they
rely on new sharing tools that erase files as
soon as a transfer is complete. Ms Kassa,
the journalist forced to flee Ethiopia, con
tinues to report on Tigray via the internet.
From her new base, which she asked to
keep confidential, Ms Kassa conducts in
terviews with victims and witnesses of
atrocitiesoverthephone.Sheasksa networkoflocalsshehasdeveloped,people
who are not on the Ethiopian govern
ment’sradar,togetholdofphotographs,
videosandhealthrecordsasevidence.In
regionswherethereisa communications
blackout,thesesocalledfixersgotongo
offices, which are sometimes the only
buildingswithWiFiconnections,toshare
documentswithMsKassaviamessaging
apps.Shecompareseachstoryagainstsat
elliteimagery,andshehashiredexpertsto
helpherspotdoctoredimages.Anarticle
thatwouldhavetakenheroneweektore
portonthegroundnowtakesa month.But,
MsKassainsists,“therearealwaysways.”
Reporterscanbeannoying.Whenthey
bangonaboutfreedomofthepress,they
mightsoundselfserving.ButasTimothy
Garton Ash, a professor at Oxford Universi
ty and author of “Free Speech”, puts it, “you
need these pesky, difficult people.” Re
search shows that where there is freedom
of the press there is less corruption. When
autocrats distort the news, they force their
publics to live in a fantasy world.
Consider Russia. Even as Mr Putin is
failing in his war on Ukraine, he is suc
ceeding in mythmaking at home. His pro
paganda machine is spewing lies, includ
ing that war crimes committed by his forc
es are hoaxes staged by actors, and he has
criminalised objective reporting. Victoria
Arefyeva, a photojournalist for Sota.Vision,
an independent news outlet, faces con
stant harassment while trying to report on
protests: “You begin to realise you can no
longer film as before.” Those determined to
challenge the state narrative must take ex
treme steps, like Marina Ovsyannikova, a
television producer who interrupted a live
broadcast on stateowned Channel One
holding a sign: “Don’t believe the propa
ganda. They are lying to you here.”
Elena Kostyuchenko, an investigative
reporter, has been beaten by thugsand has
seen four colleagues murdered in her 17
years at Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspa
per. She says the new censorship laws are
succeeding. Publications like hers have
been forced to stop printing and to take
down online articles. Even techsavvy Rus
sians are struggling to reach blocked con
tent now that many Russian bank cards
have been disabled, making it tricky to pay
for vpnservices. “ I love my country,” Ms
Kostyuchenko says, when asked why she
would risk jail by reporting there. “It may
sound strange, but it’s still true.”
Perhaps Ms Kassa is right when she says
that the truth can fight for itself. But the
omens are not good. As government con
trol grows more sophisticated, even the
bravest and most innovative journalists
are finding it harder to do their jobs. If the
steady erosion of press freedom is not re
versed, governments will get awaywith
more abuses and everyone will find it
harder to understand the world as it is.nTruth decay
Global freedom of expression index*
1=HighestSource:Varieties of Democracy *Population-weighted0.8
0.70.60.50.40.32115100520009590851980Confidence intervalFor stories of journalists who are struggling
with, and in some cases overcoming , the
new constraints on press freedom, please
see economist.com /press-freedom-2022