News publishers develop playbook to defend against government attacks

In Brazil, Hungary, Poland, and Mexico, populist presidents have weaponized social media to undermine the press Editors of leading publications in those countries described their own strategies to defend press freedom. Key elements: don’t back down, collaborate internationally, protect your team, uncover the facts. Some of the tactics used by populist presidents include taking over […]

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The war on journalists intensifies

The disinformation tactics at work against the press in the Philippines should be a warning to democratic societies all around the world. “Our dystopian present is coming to a democracy near you,” said investigative journalist Maria Ressa, CEO of the publication Rappler, who has watched the evolution of attacks on her work over the past […]

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In Eastern Europe, a media battle for hearts and minds

Many of the right-wing or nationalist leaders of Eastern and Central Europe have been winning votes by attacking the political correctness of the European Union and its allies. And they have chosen as their whipping boy George Soros, the billionaire and philanthropist whose Open Society Foundations have been funding programs that promote Western democratic values […]

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The benevolent virus that is saving the news media

The network effects that destroyed traditional news organizations are benefiting digital startups, which can grow virally and generate outsized impact in their communities. From Unimedliving My teaching colleagues are experts on the economics of the media industry, and we recently had a lively debate on how to reverse the financial crisis of journalism. The collapse […]

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A voice for free speech in a free world

Marty Baron, center, with U. of Navarra faculty and students. Photo by Manuel Castells Marty Baron, editor of the Washington Post, came to speak at University of Navarra events in Madrid and Pamplona last week. Baron’s message made me proud to be an American and a journalist. The whole world looks to the U.S. for […]

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