The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

In this article , The Shift News reports that female journalists and politicians are on the receiving end of an avalanche of abusive tweets, receiving such tweets ‘every 30 seconds on average’. This information came from a study released by Amnesty International. Twitter is a fast social network. Posts refresh rapidly and news, whether trivial or critical, can be followed live in a series of short and succinct pieces of text linked with relevant hashtags. This is advantageous when used well, but clearly greatly disadvantageous if utilised by the wrong hands.  With such rapidity of newsfeeds, such a swell of ‘abusive or otherwise hostile tweets’ is made possible, though it shouldn’t be. Often the ones behind such tweets will argue that it is free speech after all, and who are we, campaigning for our freedom of speech, to limit them from speaking their minds? Such an argument is one I hear or see online (for trolls generally prefer to hide behind the anonymity of their screens...

T his is one of the most dangerous times for journalists to be writing in a decade, according to a report highlighted by an article in Time . The article states: Journalists around the world have faced a substantial increase in physical and verbal attacks compared to previous years. The report also noted that a decline in media freedom around the world … had been matched by an increase in authoritarian tendencies guided by strongman leaders. This is shocking, but it also does not come as much of a surprise. One doesn’t need to ask why it is shocking. It’s blatantly obvious. The thought that individuals might face threats and intimidation on a daily basis for writing is already awful enough. Then we remember Daphne Caruana Galizia, Jan Kuciak, Viktoria Marinova and Jamal Khashoggi, amongst so many others, and realise further how absolutely barbaric attacks on journalists can and do get. The verbal assaults become physical, and only grow worse as time passes. But the re...