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	When the News is Bought: Media Capture on the Rise by Jennifer Cobb Internews   A new book, In the Service of Power: Media Capture and the Threat to Democracy, edited by Anya Schiffrin, posits that media capture is now a primary strategic approach for autocrats and kleptocrats and threatens democracy in every corner of the world.   In many parts of the world, special interests, from oligarchs and other elites to governments, are influencing and controlling the media for personal gain. When media is captured in this way, it is no longer independent. Captured media loses the ability to reflect the broad interests of the community and to hold power to account – the classic role of the fourth estate. Most often, media is captured by governments, plutocrats or corporations or, in many cases, a mixture of all three.   Media capture is nothing new. Internews has worked for the past 35 years in more than 100 countries to support independent media. We would be hard-pressed to find examples where media capture has not been a factor, and often a significant one.   While capture is not new, its stock is currently on the rise as it becomes a favorite tool of vested interests everywhere. As a new volume, In the Service of Power: Media Capture and the Threat to Democracy, edited by Anya Schiffrin, lays out, media capture is now a primary strategic approach for autocrats and kleptocrats and threatens democracy in every corner of the world.   There are several key reasons for this. At the top of the list is the rise of digital media. As Marquez-Ramiro and Guerrero in the volume write, “Digitization has pulverized markets, changed consumption patterns and blurred media platforms.” As media markets transitioned to digital, the business model collapsed, making media weak and vulnerable to capture. Media became less differentiated, particularly on social platforms. As local news and smaller organizations failed or merged, markets became less diverse and increasingly consolidated. This trend is not improving. Today, Google and Facebook consume 85 cents of every dollar spent on digital advertising, leaving very little left for media organizations to share.   At the same time as the digital transition, the 2008 global recession created a further erosion in many media markets, particularly in Europe and Eurasia, where markets have concentrated and oligarchs have been on a media buying spree. An Internews colleague in Eastern Europe remarked to me, “If you are going to be a successful oligarch in this part of the world, you have to have a Lamborghini, a Swedish model girlfriend and a media company.”   Just this past weekend, we saw the outcome of this trend in the Czech elections. Ano, the far right party formed by oligarch Andrej Babis, gained nearly 30 percent of the vote. Babis, largely assured to be the next prime minister, owns two newspapers that account for 33% of newspaper readership, and a popular radio station. He was victorious in spite of a financial scandal over his business practices, reporting that he calls a “disinformation campaign.”   Digital media has also allowed authoritarians to evolve their models. The old model of rule by terror – of rounding people up in the middle of the night at gunpoint – is increasingly out of fashion. These days, regimes realize that media and digital information is an easier, cheaper and more effective way to control populations.   A third factor is the increase in wealth concentration around the world. Those with money want to keep their money, and the fastest way to do it is to leverage political control. It turns out it is smarter and more direct to buy the media than it is to bribe the media. Particularly when the media is struggling financially, it''''s a bargain. This form of capture is particularly insidious. Schiffrin, commenting on the effect of media capture on economic inequality writes “Politicians can be voted out of office, but the rich cannot.”   As a famous Russian (who wasn’t an oligarch) once said, “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” There is, as this volume and other scholarship points out, a capture playbook. But capture plays out differently according to the political, social and economic context of the particular media environment.   In the pre-digital age, the global community that cared about supporting independent, truthful media and understood its critical role in democracies, believed that diverse, pluralistic markets were the best defense against capture. In these markets, even if some of the media was captured, there was space for independent voices. Today, that answer feels incomplete. Markets diverse and strong enough to support a range of voices and organizations are growing increasingly rare. This is cause for concern.   We need to pay close attention to how our media is captured, and by whom. We need to be clear-eyed that capture is a significant factor in most media markets. And we need to be smart and informed about who is capturing the media and what their incentives are. Armed with that information, we can embark on the difficult conversations about what to do about it.   * In the Service of Power: Media Capture and the Threat to Democracy: http://www.cima.ned.org/resource/service-power-media-capture-threat-democracy/ http://www.internews.org/index.php/opinion/when-news-bought-media-capture-rise http://www.thenation.com/article/david-bell-democracy-and-truth/ http://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/russia-to-ban-fake-news-and-indecent-state-criticism-20190125-p50tmn.html http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/01/never-worse-time-journalist/ Visit the related web page
	Civil Society Space declining around the world by FRA, Article 19, CIVICUS Monitor, agencies   Jan. 2018   Civil society under threat, says EU Fundamental Rights Agency   In many parts of the EU, civil society is under threat, finds a new report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Given the vital role civil society plays in upholding democratic processes and in promoting human rights, decision makers need to ensure the important work of civil society is not undermined through policy and legal changes and funding cuts.   “A thriving democracy needs a healthy civil society. Unfortunately, the EU’s own civil society is facing a pattern of threats and pressures in many parts of the EU. Addressing this unacceptable situation should be a high priority for policy makers at EU and national levels,” says FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty.   The ‘Challenges facing civil society organisations working on human rights in the EU’ report explores how these challenges vary across the EU. It points to:   Threats, physical and verbal attacks against activists, as well as smear campaigns; Legal changes that negatively affect civil society, such as freedom of assembly restrictions, often a by-product of counter-terrorism laws; Shrinking budgets and increased difficulties in getting funding; Lack of appropriate involvement of civil society in law- and policy-making.   Member States should abide by the laws, including international standards that recommend civil society participation in policy cycles. Due attention must also be paid to ensure that new or redrafted laws and policies do not undermine the work of civil society. Civil society funding also needs to be protected. In addition, channels of dialogue between civil society and the EU need to be strengthened to ensure their concerns are heard and addressed. This includes finding ways to collect comparable and reliable data on the challenges civil society face, such as threats, intimidation and attacks. The report contains practices that are being used to address these challenges.   http://fra.europa.eu/en/press-release/2018/civil-society-under-threat-fundamental-rights-agency-finds   Jan. 2018   The EU has historically done a good job supporting and protecting rights advocates worldwide but the bloc''s authority is now being undermined from within, writes Umberto Bacchi.   The European Union is setting a bad example by allowing some of its members to stifle human rights groups, which is encouraging crackdowns elsewhere in the world, a top United Nations official charged with defending rights activists said.   Michel Forst said officials in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and other countries pointed at recent laws in Hungary and Poland to justify their own regulations which may curb the independence of non-governmental organisations.   "There is a need for European countries to be more coherent.. not to teach human rights outside of Europe and then not respecting human rights inside Europe," said Forst, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders.   Charities in dozens of countries, from Angola to India and Tajikistan have faced restrictions targeting their funding and operations over the past two years, according to an EU report.   The trend is part of a global backlash on civil society that has seen rights activists in some parts of the world criminalised or branded as troublemakers, Forst told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in London.   In 2017, thousands of activists were detained and at least 312 killed because of their work, up 11 percent on the previous year, according to Front Line Defenders, a watchdog group.   Forst said the EU has historically done a good job supporting and protecting rights advocates worldwide but the bloc''s authority is now being undermined from within.   Last year, Hungary introduced a measure requiring NGOs that get money from abroad to register with the state, a bill that NGOs say stigmatizes them and is intended to stifle independent voices. Poland instead introduced legislation to set up a centralised authority controlling charities funding.   As countermeasure, the EU should boost direct funding of rights groups operating within its borders, Forst said.   "What is absurd for me is that the EU is funding organisations in Latin America, in Africa - which is good - but there is no more funding for EU NGOs," he said.   Money should be allocated from a dedicated fund and not channelled through governments, he said.   The European Commission said last year it was taking Hungary to the EU''s top court over its NGO laws that the government says aim to protect the country from foreign influence.   Besides Europe, Forst also singled out Australia for its treatment of asylum seekers held in offshore camps, adding it was "not a safe place" for human rights defenders due to pressure from the government.   A December report by Pro Bono Australia and the Human Rights Law Centre, two rights groups, found Australian NGOs were often pressured into "self-silencing" their advocacy work fearing funding cuts and political retribution.   "Global civil society space is shrinking because it is shrinking in Europe, because it is shrinking in the Americas, in Australia," said Forst. http://tmsnrt.rs/2FhoRsb   Dec. 2017   Media freedom, Civil Society Space declining around the world. (ARTICLE 19)   New ARTICLE 19 metric measures global threats to freedom of expression and information   Freedom of expression organisation, ARTICLE 19 has joined with the social science database V-Dem to launch a unique, authoritative assessment of freedom of expression and information worldwide. The Expression Agenda (XpA) metric uses a range of indicators to measure freedom of expression in 172 countries. V-Dem have also used historic data to identify the major free speech trends of the last ten years.   Key findings   Global media freedom is at its lowest level for ten years. In 2016 alone, 259 journalists were imprisoned worldwide, and 79 were killed.   Internet censorship has become more pervasive since 2006. Algorithms are increasingly used to remove legal and illegal content with little transparency over the process or consideration of human rights.   Much of the world’s online content is now regulated by the community standards of a handful of internet companies, whose processes lack transparency and are not subject to the checks and balances of traditional governance.   Private communications are being surveilled as never before, as states, including the UK, pass legislation to enable extensive digital surveillance.   Governments are using unprecedented legal and other measures to silence dissenting voices and protest by individuals and civil society organisations. These tactics include labelling NGOs as ‘foreign agents’ and the illegal surveillance of NGOs and journalists.   The call for greater transparency is one of the most significant positive shifts over the past decades, with right to information laws now in 119 countries.   Executive Director Thomas Hughes said:   “For the first time, we have a comprehensive and holistic overview of the state of free of expression and information around the world. Unfortunately, our findings show that freedom of expression is under attack in democracies as well as authoritarian regimes.   “The XpA Metric is a tool for understanding where governments are succeeding and failing in their duty to promote and protect our rights. We hope that it will help journalists, activists and policymakers to monitor free speech, challenge the threats to it and hold governments and companies to account.   “But it also offers us a positive guide for how freedom of expression and information can be realised so that we can all participate in public life, enjoy a private life, and exercise our right to free speech.”   Global media freedom at lowest level for a decade 17 years   One of the most serious findings of the Expression Agenda (XpA) is that global media freedom is at its lowest level for a decade.   The rise of citizen journalists, bloggers and information activists has put more individuals and groups at risk than ever before. The threats they face include state repression, organised crime, business interests and religious fundamentalism. There has been an alarming rise in attacks on journalists, human rights defenders and activists who seek to expose corruption and abuse.   A decline of media pluralism has been accompanied by a parallel decline in democratic freedoms. Brazil, Turkey, Burundi, Egypt, Poland, Venezuela and Bangladesh have seen particularly disturbing drops in a diverse and independent media.   Shift in advertising revenues towards the internet has radically altered traditional media companies. Redundancies, cutbacks and the decline in salaried journalists are contributing to concerns about the future of accurate and reliable journalism in the 21st century. The control of information is increasingly in the hands of a few companies with search engines and algorithms now responsible for delivering news and information to digital audiences, and especially those using social media platforms.   http://bit.ly/2ni2DCd http://bit.ly/2i2T8Bm   Dec. 2017   Pakistan closes 27 NGOs in what activists see as widening crackdown. (Reuters)   Pakistan has ordered 27 international aid groups to shut down for ''purportedly'' working in unauthorised areas, spurring human rights campaigners to denounce swelling constraints on free speech and humanitarian work.   The Ministry of Interior gave the 27 NGOs 90 days to conclude operations, according to a list seen by Reuters. Among those being expelled are Action Aid, World Vision, Plan International, Trocaire, Pathfinder International, Danish Refugee Council, Open Society Foundations, Oxfam Novib, and Marie Stopes.   The Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), which represents 63 international aid groups, said the ministry had issued 11 of its members "letters of rejection". All of them said they will appeal. No reason for the rejections have been provided, the forum said.   Plan International, which has worked in Pakistan since 1997, said it is supporting over 1.6 million children across Pakistan. Plan said it was given no reason for the ministry''s decision and would appeal it.   "The organisation is hopeful that the appeals process will make it possible for its work with vulnerable and marginalised children, especially girls, to continue in Pakistan," it said in a statement.   All the other NGOs on the list who responded to queries from Reuters also said they had been given no reason for being forced to shut down.   Pakistan has hardened its stance towards domestic and international NGOs in recent years, requiring them to undertake a painstaking registration process and clear multiple bureaucratic hurdles to continue working in the country.   In January, the interior ministry ordered a dozen domestic groups working on women''s issues and human rights to halt operations, a move later overturned in courts.   Pakistan is not alone in cracking down on foreign charities.   Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi''s BJP nationalist government has since 2014 increased restrictions of non-profit groups, claiming their human rights and environmental work were acting against India''s economic interests. Thousands of foreign-funded charities licences have been cancelled.   In China, a law that went into effect on Jan. 1 this year grants broad powers to police to question NGO workers, monitor their finances, regulate their work and shut down offices.   The clampdown on NGOs has come after a number of activists disappeared this year, some of whom have not been heard from. Reuters estimates at least 14 people have been picked up and interrogated from major urban centres including journalists, political workers, and social media activists.   Three members of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) have also disappeared in the past year, chairperson Mehdi Hasan told Reuters.   Human rights campaigners say the crackdown on NGOs and disappearances of civil society activists are part of a wider campaign to quell free speech.   "They both signify the shrinking space for free expression and activism in Pakistan and the diminishing tolerance the Pakistan state has," Saroop Ijaz, a representative for the Pakistan chapter of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.   Yusuf, who formerly served as HRCP chairperson, said Pakistan feels it has impunity in dealing with rights groups and activists.   "Its the repositioning of Pakistan as a security state and perceiving all forms of dissent as a security challenge," Yusuf said. "It''s creating a lot of fear in society."   Oct. 2017   People Power Under Attack. (CIVICUS)   CIVICUS Monitor Ratings Update October 2017   Updated ratings from the CIVICUS Monitor, provide further evidence that the space for civil society - civic space - continues to close around the world. The findings show that this phenomenon extends to a wide range of countries - from established democracies like Belgium and the Netherlands, to economic powerhouse China and conflict ridden Yemen.   The report outlines how civic space ratings worsened in eight countries, improved in two and remained unchanged in 185 countries. These changes are based on a review of quantitative and qualitative data on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression undertaken between July and September 2017.   Key highlights:   108 countries are now in the CIVICUS Monitor’s ‘obstructed’, ‘repressed’ and ‘closed’ categories, an increase of two from April 2017, which indicate serious restrictions of civic space.   Just 22 countries now occupy the ‘open’ category, down from 26 in April. This means that just 2% of the world’s population live in a country with ‘open’ civic space. This analysis also shows that more than three billion people live in countries with serious to extreme restrictions on fundamental civic freedoms.   Only 13 of 28 European Union (EU) member states now have ‘open’ civic space, an uncomfortable statistic for the leaders of a union founded on the values of democracy and human rights.   Journalists are especially vulnerable to violations of their civic freedoms, between June 2016 and September 2017, the CIVICUS Monitor published a total of 184 reports involving attacks of one kind or another on journalists.   http://monitor.civicus.org/ http://monitor.civicus.org/globalfindings0417/ http://www.civicus.org/icsw/index.php/home   * June 2017 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association on the achievements of Civil Society: http://bit.ly/2BAgZQj   http://freeassembly.net/all-news/ http://concordeurope.org/what-we-do/promoting-civil-society-space/ http://www.solidar.org/en/pillars/organising-international-solidarity http://www.fidh.org/en/ http://www.forum-asia.org/ http://bit.ly/2FoGRko http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-global-rights-index-workers http://ecesr.org/en/2014/11/04/after-threats-egyptian-human-rights-organization-decide-not-to-participate-in-upr/ http://www.world-psi.org/en/brazilian-government-wants-googles-help-approve-pension-reform http://www.handsoffourcharities.org.au/ http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/trends-policy-issues/federal-tax-reform http://bit.ly/2BAjJ1L   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SRHRDefenders/Pages/SRHRDefendersIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/AssemblyAssociation/Pages/SRFreedomAssemblyAssociationIndex.aspx http://www.protecting-defenders.org/en/content/declaration-human-rights-defenders http://bit.ly/2BAgZQj http://sur.conectas.org/en/global-challenges-local-responses/   http://www.openglobalrights.org/closing-space-for-civil-society/ http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/ http://www.omct.org/ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sakharovprize/en/home/the-prize.html http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/five-steps-eu-must-take-protect-civil-society http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/ http://www.hrw.org/ http://bit.ly/2Ejwpvk http://bit.ly/2DQTuI3 http://bit.ly/2DK5jjL http://bit.ly/2rPna3q http://bit.ly/2noQ2K6 http://bit.ly/2x4mJRG http://bit.ly/2CHUuxu http://bit.ly/2Gs5eyO Visit the related web page
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