One of the biggest victims of COVID-19 is media freedom. In recent years, from the US to the Philippines, media freedom has increasingly come under increasing attack. At the same time, never before have we seen such desperate need for credible, reliable information and news.

In these COVID times, media outlets and journalists have fallen foul of their authoritarian governments for reporting on the pandemic. News reports on increasing cases of COVID-19 and poor policy decisions have been met with further media repression. Many illiberal governments such as in Hungary and the Philippines have taken this pandemic as an opportunity to increase state capture and decrease media plurality.

Right now, editors at The New York Times are thinking of moving a third of their Hong Kong staff, mainly the digital editing team, in China to Seoul in South Korea over press freedom fears. Just last week, the editor-in-chief of Hungary’s leading independent media outlet, Index.hu, was dismissed. Szabolcs Dull had warned that the website’s independence was in grave danger. His dismissal prompted the majority of Index journalists, including the editorial board, to resign after an unsuccessful bid to have him reinstated. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Budapest in the weekend to protest for media freedom. Meanwhile, media pluralism is in decline across Eastern and Central Europe.

Meanwhile, in the US, over 46 journalists were arrested and a dozen others injured by rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas while covering the Black Lives Matter protests. Independent UK’s US editor Andrew Buncombe became the news when his bloodied face made it to the front pages. What makes these attacks distressing is the fact that the President of the US Trump derides journalists as “fake news” at his press conferences and rallies supporters to mock the ”enemy of the people”.

We are witnessing a growing number of governments restricting the expression of facts and scientific evidence that they don’t like. Despite scientific evidence that Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work, President Bolsonaro (Brazil) has been touting it as a cure for COVID-19. In fact, media freedom has been deteriorating around the world over the past decade. According to this year’s Freedom House Report, influential populist leaders have overseen attempts to diminish the independence of the media sector. It is a slippery slope that leads to the degradation of freedom and democracy. It is, unfortunately, the path we are on.

Freedom of expression is a universal human right. It is very important for the smooth functioning of a healthy democracy. After all, it seeks out and broadcasts information, news, ideas, comments, opinions, arguments, and counter-arguments. It also holds those in power to account.

Countries that have managed to have a free and fair media usually have legal or constitutional protection for press freedom. They also have media plurality and strong unions like in the Scandinavian countries. Investigative journalists and whistleblowers need protection to be able to do their jobs without fear. We are well aware of the assassination of investigative journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta, Ján Kuciak in Slovakia, and Viktoria Marinova in Bulgaria. They all had reported on government corruption and organised crime. They paid the price for doing their job with their lives.

Fortunately, there is evidence that given the right opportunity, press freedom can rebound from lengthy stints of repression. This happened in former dictatorships such as Ethiopia and Gambia. However, a burning desire for truth, liberty and access to evidence-based journalism, can’t be easily destroyed.

Technology and social media have played an increasingly important role in information dissemination during COVID-19. In countries where we have state-controlled media such as Venezuela to Sudan, social platforms have become a popular space for people to share and exchange news.

Even though of late we have seen increasing attacks on the media, it’s good to note that the pandemic hasn’t stopped the sector from launching new publications. The New European newspaper which was intended as a short-term response to the UK’s Brexit referendum continues to print today while in Italy, Domani, a new liberal daily is set to be launched by Carlo De Benedetti – ex-president of the group behind La Repubblica.

We already see a sharp resistance to media attacks, and hopefully, we will see a far robust and spirited mediascape in the post-COVID days.

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