Featuring eight case studies identified from media around the world, the report presents the details of charges targeting the press and shows the impact such accusations have on individual journalists and media organisations.
Profiles of charges including tax evasion, money-laundering, blackmail, terrorism financing, fraud, and illegally receiving foreign funds levied against media in Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Tanzania, and The Philippines demonstrate the broad global trend facing journalists worldwide.
“Financial crimes prove effective in silencing media and journalists as they do not require the need for a link to content produced and are not subject to the same international scrutiny as laws explicitly targeting media.”
The report highlights how effective the misuse of these financial crimes allegations is in silencing reporting; how it is part of a shared playbook used by autocrats and enemies to press freedom; and how urgently strategies to push back against the phenomenon are needed.
While the wide range of legal threats, as well as administrative and other tools, employed by governments and other actors to target independent journalists and media outlets continues to be an increasing and alarming trend, the focus on financial crimes allegations consistently reveals a dual strategy: to attack both the financial viability of a news outlet and the reputation of a journalist or team of journalists.
WAN-IFRA members report an increase in legal expenses and a significant rise in legal challenges to their daily operations. 44% of respondents to our 2023-2024 World Press Trends Outlook report recorded facing legal intimidation and retaliation over the previous 12 months. The misuse of economic or fiscal-related charges, used to shutter publications, bury publishers in the court system, or intimidate journalists away from a story, undoubtedly contribute to these accounts.
The main trends identified in the research show:
The threat of imprisonment that economic charges pose has a strong chilling effect in the media community in the country and worldwide.
As financial charges correspond to criminal law, many prosecutions result in lengthy pre-trial detention, prison terms and hefty fines. Consequences also include exile of staff, financial loss/ruin and closure of the media outlet’s operations.
During criminal investigations and trials, journalists and media operations can be denied access to bank accounts and have their assets frozen.
Legal defence against such charges is very costly and requires access to tax and criminal lawyers, accounting experts, and other legal expertise.
The narrative behind such charges intends to label journalists as criminals, erode public support, and attack a journalist’s or media outlet’s reputation.
The report accompanies a UNESCO Issue Brief on the broader themes of the misuse of economic charges.
“Being aware of how such laws are being used – or misused – will hopefully better insulate us from their effects. Sharing the case studies featured in this report is an important step,” said Andrew Heslop, WAN-IFRA Executive Director for Press Freedom.
“That media companies are obliged to defend their work from fair legal challenge is nothing new. In a rights-based society, doing so is part of the job. But when doing so becomes disproportionate, overburdensome, or simply a convenient way to censor with a veneer of legal legitimacy, it is a warning – a step towards the erosion of trust, transparency, and accountability upon which the entire system relies.”
Download the report for free here.
Click here for more information on the UNESCO Issue Brief.
The report findings will be presented during a dedicated session at WAN-IFRA’s upcoming Newsroom Summit in Zurich, 21st – 23rd October. For more information visit: https://wan-ifra.org/events/newsroom-summit-2024/
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