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World Press Freedom Day update
Welcome to the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s World Press Freedom Day update. In this update, you’ll find highlights from our media freedom work, as well as the latest on how you can get involved. If you don’t regularly receive our updates, you can subscribe here.
How we support independent media and journalists
Today is World Press Freedom Day. It comes at a time when press freedom has been in decline around the world for over a decade, with COVID-19 further being exploited as a pretext to stifle critical reporting and with the safety of journalists worsening year after year.
While this year’s World Press Freedom Day theme of ‘journalism under surveillance’ puts the spotlight on new forms of censorship in a digital era, it is important to acknowledge that journalists continue to face grave threats offline, often ending in tragic consequences. Last month, for instance, the Press Emblem Campaign reported an alarming 153 per cent increase – with 38 victims – in the killing of journalists in the first three months of 2022, compared to 15 deaths in the same period last year.
For more than 35 years, the Thomson Reuters Foundation has worked at the forefront of the struggle for an independent press, the safety of journalists and the freedom of expression. Our convictions, rooted in our rich media and legal expertise, remain as firm as ever in the face of existing and emerging threats to press freedom, which we believe is a crucial building block of free, fair and informed societies.
This article highlights our eight ongoing efforts to support media freedom and independent journalism around the world. These include:
1. Our presence at the UNESCO Global Conference
Today, we will participate in the UNESCO Global Conference for the celebration of World Press Freedom Day, a global event to mark the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate the state of media freedom around the world and the challenges journalists face; and to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives in the pursuit of journalism.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Media Freedom Coalition – supported by the Foundation as Secretariat – are hosting panel discussions at the Conference, which will also be livestreamed for those who register in advance, and recordings will be available to watch later.
The Foundation’s panel will see leading tech experts discuss effective tools to counter gender-based online violence and spotlight TRFilter – a tangible solution to reduce the impact of online abuse on journalists.
The Freedom Online Coalition and Media Freedom Coalition will co-host an event on digital authoritarianism and technology-facilitated threats to journalists and human rights defenders.
2. TRFilter: A new online harassment manager
While the Internet has enabled journalists to report from around the world in real time, it has also exposed them to a barrage of online abuse, especially when reporting on politicised or contentious issues. The threats loom larger for women.
In partnership with Google’s Jigsaw unit, we collaborated with journalists, activists and non-governmental organisations to explore how pioneering technology could reduce the impact of gender-based online violence.
Together, we developed TRFilter, a web-based application that limits journalists’ exposure to abusive content, allowing them to block, mute or save comments at scale. It also allows the users to create reports to store or share with third parties as needed.
3. The Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism – one month until applications close
Since 2009, we have supported and hosted the Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism. Named in honour of American journalist Kurt Schork, who was killed in Sierra Leone while on assignment for Reuters in 2000, the three annual awards recognise the courageousness of freelance journalists, local reporters and news fixers who are reporting on conflict, corruption, human rights transgressions and other related issues.
Applications for the 2022 Kurt Schork Awards are open until Tuesday, 31 May. The three winners will each receive a prize of US $5,000.
We are the corporate foundation of Thomson Reuters, the global news and information services company. We work to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies, and promote human rights.
