World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development: Global Report 2017/2018

"...we highlight the interdependent objectives of the protection of freedom of expression and the development of an informed public." - Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

This is the second edition of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report offering a critical examination of global trends in media freedom, pluralism, independence, and journalists' safety, with a special focus on gender equality in the media. In addition, in 2015, UNESCO issued a Special Digital Focus report, which explores emerging opportunities and challenges for press freedom in the digital age. (See Related Summaries, below, for the earlier reports.)

The global report examines press freedom in four of its dimensions: (i) media freedom, (ii) media pluralism, (iii) media independence, and (iv) safety of journalists. The same four dimensions are being used to analyse media trends in six regional sub-reports covering Africa, Arab Region, Asia and the Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and North America. They will be published in mid-2018. Covering the period 2012 to 2017, both the main global report and its regional reports are intended as a tool for implementing the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which recognises the importance of ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms among its goals. This focus is in line with UNESCO's position that freedom of expression and media development have an important role in maintaining the rule of law and enhancing good governance - as reflected in Target 16.10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): "public access to information and fundamental freedoms in accordance with natural legislation and international agreements."

In brief, this study recognises the changing roles that political actors, internet companies, and audiences are playing in shaping information environments nationally, regionally, and globally. It examines transformations in journalism and changes for different types of users and producers of information facilitated by new information and communication technologies (ICTs); for example, the reader learns that the past five years have seen a shift from widespread acceptance of a principle of limited liability for internet companies to increasing calls for intermediaries to be more active as mediating gatekeepers. At the same time, this report demonstrates the continued relevance of the vision of press freedom put forward in the Windhoek Declaration. Endorsed by the UNESCO General Conference in 1991, this declaration clarifies that press freedom necessitates media freedom but is also wider than this dimension. It underlines that effective press freedom needs to be underpinned by, and realised through, a media environment that is not only legally free but that also provides for media pluralism and independence. Over the years, it has become clear that another distinctive underlying component for press freedom is safety for public expression. It has also become evident that gender-sensitive considerations are required throughout all dimensions of press freedom.

This multi-dimensional conceptualisation affords insight into the interdependence of press freedom's four components, around which the report is organised. Key findings include:

Trends in Media Freedom: A stronger right to seek and receive information, but more restrictions on the right to impart.

• Continued legal restrictions, including criminal laws against defamation, insult, blasphemy and lèse-majesté.
• Increased blocking and filtering of online content, with a rise in large-scale shutdowns of social media websites, mobile networks, and internet access.
• National security concerns, states of emergency, and anti-terrorism laws have suspended or curtailed freedom of expression.
• Digital media have raised new challenges to the right to privacy and journalistic sources.
• Support for shared principles of internet governance around "internet universality" and an internet that is rights-based, open, accessible and multi-stakeholder (ROAM).
• Increased recognition of the public's right to access information, with strong growth in freedom of information laws, especially in Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Trends in Media Pluralism: More plurality of information, but no change in gender inequality in and through the media.

• Nearly half the world's population now has access to the internet; an estimated 35% of people in developing countries have access, and in the least developed countries (LDCs), this drops to 10%. Yet, connectivity is just one aspect of addressing digital inequalities. Accessibility in the form of language provision and advanced user competencies is also key.
• The availability of media content has dramatically increased, largely through user-generated content on social media.
• The practice of "zero-rating" has increased pluralism in terms of access, but it has raised concerns about limiting net neutrality.
• Newspaper circulation has fallen globally.
• Women remain underrepresented in the media workforce, decision-making roles, and in media content and sources.
• Algorithm-ranked search results and social media news feeds have been seen to contribute to the creation of "echo chambers" and "filter bubbles", where people reinforce their beliefs rather than dialogue across differences.

Trends in Media Independence: Strains on business models mean more dependence on outside influence, although media institutions, as well as internet companies, are giving greater attention to self-regulatory standards.

• Rise in rhetoric against the media by political figures is encouraging self-censorship and undermining media's credibility.
• Increased dependence on government and corporate subsidies is linked to disruptions in business models.
• Trust in news media is seen to have declined in some regions.
• Broadcast licensing continues to be driven by political and commercial interests.
• Self-regulatory bodies, which can support the exercise of professional standards while maintaining editorial independence, have grown in post-conflict and developing countries.
• Increased self-regulatory efforts by internet intermediaries are promoting media and information literacy, counteracting "fake news" and tackling online abuse.

Trends in the Safety of Journalists: Growing attacks on journalists - a trend that may have been even worse if it were not for the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity.

• Between 2012 and 2016, 530 journalists were killed, an average of two deaths per week.
• Killings of women journalists doubled during the period, from five women journalists in 2012 to 10 journalists in 2016.
• 92% of journalists killed are local, 8% foreign.
• Impunity for crimes against journalists has remained the norm, with justice in fewer than one in 10 cases.
• Growing threats to digital safety include cyber-attacks, surveillance, hacking, intimidation and harassment, especially of women journalists.
• Member States have become more responsive to the Director-General's request for information on the status of judicial inquiries into killings of journalists.

In short, the report "provides an overall mapping against which regional and national trends can be compared, and corrective measures taken in order to shape our communication for a better future."

Contents include:

Foreword
Executive Summary
Introduction

• Rationale
• International norms of press freedom
• Conceptualizing press freedom
• Conceptual elaboration
• Technological, social and political context
  • Inequalities and audiences
  • Conflict and violent extremism
  • Forced migration and the refugee crisis
• Structure of the report
• Conclusion

Ch. 1 Trends in Media Freedom

• Overview
• Understanding media freedom
• Limitations on media freedom
  • Defamation laws and other legal restrictions on journalists
  • Internet curbs, cut-offs and content removal
  • National security and countering violent extremism
• Access to information and privacy protections
  • Access to information
  • Privacy, surveillance and encryption
  • Protection of confidential sources and whistle-blowing
• Internet governance and media freedom
• Gender equality and media freedom
• Conclusion

Ch. 2 Trends in Media Pluralism

• Overview
• Understanding media pluralism
• Access
  • Internet and mobile
  • Broadcast media
  • Newspaper industry
• Economic models
  • Pluralism in media ownership
  • Advertising, between old and new models
  • New platforms and business models
• Content
  • User-generated content
  • Algorithms, echo chambers and polarization
  • 'Fake news'
  • Reporting on marginalized groups
  • New news players: the democratization of news production?
  • Media and information literacy
• Gender equality and media pluralism
  • Gender equality in the media workforce
  • Women and decision-making
  • Gender and representation
  • Changing the picture for women in media
• Conclusion

Ch. 3 Trends in Media Independence

• Overview
• Understanding media independence
• Trends and transitions in regulation
  • Independence and government regulation
  • Self-regulation
• Political and economic influences in media systems
  • Trends of de-legitimizing media
  • Media capture
  • Financial regulations and business models
  • Journalists' perceptions of media independence
  • Professionalism and efforts to mitigate political and economic interference
• Gender equality and media independence
  • Gender equality in the media workplace
  • Media monitoring and advocacy
  • Formal and informal professional associations
• Conclusion

Ch. 4 Trends in safety of journalists

• Overview
• Understanding the safety of journalists
• Violence against journalists
  • Killings of journalists
  • Impunity for crimes against journalists
  • Other attacks on the safe practice of journalism
• Digital safety for journalists
• Gender equality and the safety of journalists
  • Online harassment of women journalists
• Actions taken to enhance the safety of journalists
  • United Nations
  • Member States
  • Academia, civil society and media
• Conclusion

Appendices

• Bibliography
• Regional groupings
• Acronyms and abbreviations

Scholars at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), and University of Pennsylvania (United States) led the research for this study, together with a global network of regional researchers and research assistants, and under the direction of UNESCO's Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development. An editorial advisory board of 20 international media experts, selected for their regional and thematic expertise, provided input and peer review. The report was presented at 12th Internet Governance Forum in December 2017.

In addition to the full report, linked to below, click here for the 20-page executive summary in PDF format in English and/or click here and scroll down to access the executive summary in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.