Journalism and Civil Society Activism in a Post-COVID-19 World: Risk Assessment

"The COVID-19 pandemic has irreversibly changed the environment that SAFE, donors, and other media support organizations operate in."

To cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Securing Access to Free Expression (SAFE) initiative conducted an in-depth risk assessment to explore the pandemic's potential impact on SAFE, civil society groups, communities, and other actors working in the media and human rights space. This report shares the findings of this assessment, identifying challenges and opportunities and providing recommendations relevant to organisations, including donors, that work with journalists, activists, and marginalised groups.

The SAFE programme (see Related Summaries, below) is an IREX project that seeks to enable media practitioners and human rights defenders to work as safely as possible in closed and closing spaces. "SAFE serves to equip media practitioners and human rights defenders with the means to resiliently continue their work, and manage - as well as mitigate - the risks and threats they face in their day-to-day work uncovering injustices, reporting on corruption, and holding authorities accountable. SAFE addresses safety through the unique lens of digital identity, physical awareness, and psychosocial care by delivering trainings in five regions spanning the globe."

As stated in the report, "The Coronavirus pandemic is the first global health crisis in modern times and SAFE and other organizations with a similar mandate therefore operate in an environment for which there are no prior experiences or data. The effects of the pandemic are far-reaching and will affect all aspects of programming for civil society organizations (CSOs), donors, and multilateral actors. This new COVID 'world order' presents both challenges and opportunities that - if recognized early and addressed proactively - can be mitigated and seized."

The research to identify these potential challenges and opportunities was conducted by five global SAFE teams who used the PESTLE approach as the conceptual guideline for their analysis. PESTLE is a framework to analyse key political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing an organisation from the outside. The aggregate data from all five SAFE centres was studied to detect overarching, potentially global trends that could be of relevance not only to SAFE and IREX but also to others who work with journalists, activists, and/or marginalised groups.

The report outlines the results of the analysis around the following six thematic areas:

1. Gender and Social Inclusion
2. Journalism in a post-COVID-19 world
3. Physical Safety
4. Digital Safety
5. Psychosocial Safety
6. Logistics and Operations

The following are some of the key findings related to challenges and opportunities:

• The pandemic's economic, political, and social challenges disproportionately affect marginalised groups due to their preexisting vulnerability and due to the fact that their causes and needs may be neglected in the context of the global COVID-19 epidemic response. On top of this, authority figures are increasingly treating marginalised groups as scapegoats.
• As journalists spend more time online and become targets of increased digital attacks, the need for digital literacy will become even more important.
• On the other hand, the transition to virtual spaces creates an opportunity for technological innovations that could expand the audience for news media and engage people who have otherwise been excluded.
• Economic hardships, political instability, and lockdowns expose media to high-risk scenarios and create various mental health challenges that are likely to continue even after the pandemic ends.
• In terms of an opportunity, the pandemic could lead to heightened awareness about physical safety issues, crisis preparedness, and mental health.
• As economic downturns and media outlets' financial difficulties continue, more journalists will work as freelancers. This transition poses initial challenges but also offers opportunities for the sector as a whole by providing space for new voices and perspectives.
• Although operating costs may increase due to the pandemic's economic effects (related to inflation, lower investments, reduced trade, dwindling remittances, and mounting public debt), the pandemic has led to staff finding creative and more time-efficient solutions for everyday tasks.

For each of the thematic areas, the report offers recommendations on how journalists, civil society groups, and activists can seize opportunities that the pandemic brings. The following are just a selection:

• With rapidly increasing needs and risks faced by marginalised communities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, now more than ever, SAFE and others should focus their attention and adjust their work to better respond to the needs of communities who are not only disproportionately affected by the pandemic, but also often become the targets of discriminatory narratives and scapegoating.
• Organisations that support journalists' digital safety through trainings or emergency assistance should update their tools and training content based on a new COVID-19 digital risk landscape.
• As the transition to online spaces continues, programmes should prioritise marginalised groups' needs and make virtual activities as accessible as possible for people with disabilities, those living in rural areas, indigenous communities, women, and other marginalised groups.
• Organisations should update how they provide support to media so that training, emergency funds, and other support options better meet the needs of people with lower digital literacy and people with unstable internet connections.
• Projects and organisation should audit internally available knowledge and skills and fill gaps through professional development, hiring, or network building.
• To meet the increasing psychosocial demands specific to the COVID-19 pandemic, SAFE and similar holistic or psychosocial-focused training programmes should update psychosocial lessons to respond to mental health outcomes caused or exacerbated by the pandemic.
• Given the overall volatility of the economic landscape during and after the pandemic, future planning processes will have to accept a certain degree of unpredictability, especially around spending. New budgets should reflect this flexibility and plan for additional "emergency" budget pools that could cushion these changes.