COMMENT BLOG
A remark, a critique, an opinion…
When mainstream media get it right
Interesting to see the media's largely positive role in helping to combat the coronavirus crisis. According to Forbes Magazine (March 16), the World Health Organization (WHO) is becoming the planet’s most important social media influencer. “The Safe Hands Challenge,...
Public service broadcasting: It’s political
Attacks on the independence of the BBC are multiplying. The principle of public service broadcasting – or, in these days of digital convergence, public service media – ought to be sacrosanct. The question then becomes one of the need for unbiased oversight and...
Pushing the limits of media freedom in the interest of democratic protest
A report from Lebanon’s Maharat Foundation examines the role of freedom of expression and media during the 2019 uprising. Maharat’s aim is to create societal and political conditions that enhance freedom of expression and access to information both online and offline....
International digital taxation: It’s long overdue
“Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.” Pulitzer Prize winning American author Herman Wouk may have written that, but it certainly seems to be true of some of the major tech companies whose profits include those from dubious digital...
Civil society has a chance to regain the high ground
Surveillance and loss of privacy are watchwords in the digital transformation of societies worldwide. Who is watching us and for what purposes? Who is infringing private spaces and closing down public spaces? When it comes to communication infrastructures and...
Giving migrants a voice – and others a history lesson
National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States is demonstrating the importance both of giving a voice to migrants in media, and of ensuring the independence of the public broadcasting platform. As reported by another public broadcaster, BBC (“The immigrants telling...
Making journalism as good and as diverse as it can be
The BBC, once a bastion of public service broadcasting, is cutting 450 jobs from its news operation. In future, and in an effort to save £80 million, journalists will be covering fewer stories as the corporation faces an uncertain future. BBC journalists will...
The double-edged sword of digital technology
Front Line, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, has published its Front Line Defenders Global Analysis 2019. It details the physical assaults, defamation campaigns, digital security threats, judicial harassment, and gender-based...
Media coverage should give peace a chance
Growing tensions between the United States and Iran marked the first two weeks of 2020. News cycles have been dominated by coverage of the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, the killing of a high-profile Iranian general, Iranian attacks on US military bases, and the...
Nepal faces new threat to freedom of expression
One of the main sites of struggle for global civil society in 2020 will be digital platforms and social media. The authorities in several countries are finding ways to restrict and suppress democratic debate with legislation that casts a wide net around what is...
Demanding accountability from democratic structures
It would be wonderful to begin 2020 with an upbeat account of communication rights being strengthened and protected around the world. There are undoubtedly many instances of positive and exciting changes taking place. Unfortunately, the overall picture is dispiriting....
Communicating with tenacity and courage
How wonderful that three women have been nominated for the prestigious Martin Ennals Award – the first time the jury has named three women for this top human rights prize. Unofficially known as the “Nobel Prize for human rights”, the Martin Ennals Award was created in...
PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance