Much time and money have been spent on combatting misinformation through fact-checking. But it’s not clear whether it has any impact at all. Fact-checkers are taking credit for the circulation collapse of the doctored Nancy Pelosi video that circulated widely online after being aired on Fox news in the US and tweeted about by President Donald Trump on May…
All eyes are currently resting on Hungary and other media freedom bashers across Europe – but it is actually in Serbia where independent journalism is hitting the skids at an alarming pace. If one perused the recently released World Press Freedom Index, which measures the state of journalism in the world, Serbia’s ranking would surely…
One businessman has managed to bring both the state structures and big business in Bulgaria under his tight control. Media was a key piece of that puzzle. Last month, when Bulgarian prosecutors ordered tax authorities to investigate all of the country’s citizens who paid in excess of €260,000 for a property or car, the absence…
Cuba’s Constitution prohibits private media. Nevertheless, more than a dozen media outlets outside state control have unfolded in the country since the beginning of the century. A total of fourteen media outlets that were launched in Cuba from 2001 to 2017 have had an impact both inside and outside the country. They have won international…
A business group with far-right affinities buys The Nation, one of Thailand’s most respectable newspapers. This means that independent reporting is now likely to be whittled away. Pravit Rojanaphruk has spent more than two decades toiling for the English-language newspaper The Nation in Thailand – until 2015, when the Thai military, following a successful coup…
As fake stories are flooding the Bulgarian internet, local journalists are responding by debunking lies and tracing the sources of misinformation. They are bracing up for a tough battle. Bulgarian news aggregator Edinnabulgaria.site reported last August that dogs helping the Bulgarian border police would be euthanized. They cited a fringe Bulgarian website as the source…
The Hungarian government gobbles up media wherever its citizens live. With the recent expansion into Romania’s media, their control over the electorate is nearing completion. A well-respected journalist based in Transylvania, central Romania, Hugo Agoston saw his employment contract with Fundatia Progress abruptly terminated at the end of 2016. Mr Agoston was a writer for…
Madrid failed to show sympathy for, or pay enough attention to, Catalunya. That cost them dearly. Red and yellow striped flags, emblazoned with the blue star of independence, hang from one in every ten balconies, and are draped on the backs of passersby in the streets. The slogan “Si democracia” is stamped on buildings, street signs…
A popular satire website in Italy found out what happens when Facebook loses its sense of humor: they see fake news everywhere. Publishing under the slogan “The filth that makes the news”, Lercio is a fabled multi-award-winning website of satirical news in Italy. In its early days, some of Lercio’s stories were taken as truth and shared…
The appointment of a high government official in the body that governs Estonia’s public broadcaster is opening a can of worms. He promises to keep his two hats apart – but some people don’t trust him. On 3 May 2017, Riigikogu, Estonia’s parliament, appointed Paavo Nogene to the post of Chancellor of the Ministry of…