Reports and papers

Analyses on specific aspects related to press and media freedom, performed and published by research centres, non-governmental organizations and public bodies

Weaponizing the Digital Influence Machine: The Political Perils of Online Ad Tech

Developments in technology have turned digital political advertising into a weapon which is dangerous to democracy, a report by Data & Society argues

read more Media funding Digitalisation Digital rights Fake news and disinformation Russia Social media Americas

#TrollTracker: Bots, Botnets, and Trolls

The Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council published a post about how to distinguish bots, botnets and trolls.

read more Social media

Media reporting: facts, nothing but facts?

This special report provides an overview of how the principles of accuracy, objectivity, and fairness in news and current affairs reporting are regulated at European and national level

read more Access to information Media freedom

Freedom on the Net 2018 - The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism

Covering 87% of the world’s Internet users, Freedom on the Net is a study of Internet freedom in 65 countries around the globe that tracks improvements and declines in Internet freedom conditions each year

read more Access to information Censorship Fake news and disinformation Freedom of expression Media freedom Social media

Robust whistleblower protection is a crucial challenge for European democracy

The European Commission published on April 23, 2018, a proposal for a Directive "on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law". Quentin Van Enis, a legal expert specialised in media, analyses for the EFJ the draft directive from the journalists’ perspective

read more Whistleblowing

Concept of the enemy III: the violent forces are ganging up against journalists

The third ECPMF’s study on violence against journalists in Germany shows that the number of incidents in 2018 is close to the record high of 2015

read more Germany

Sourcing the Sources: An analysis of the use of Twitter and Facebook as a journalistic source

The study analyses the sourcing techniques used by newspaper journalists in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The comparison of Twitter and Facebook sources is given to verify whether the findings apply to social media in general

read more Ethics of journalism Social media Germany United Kingdom

Reconstruction of the socio-semantic dynamics of political activist Twitter networks

A case study of the French political landscape on Twitter during the 2017 presidential election, and how different political communities share fake news and debunks

read more France Social media Fake news and disinformation Data journalism Fact-checking

Horizons of Hate

In this research report published by VOX-Pol, Matti Pohjonen employs a comparative approach to social media hate speech, comparing three politically different Finnish Facebook groups discussing immigration

read more Finland Hate speech Social media

Is There a Future for Journalism?

This study published in the journal Journalism Practice focuses on political and economic matters impacting journalism's future, the safety of journalists, and internet governance

read more Safety of journalists Freedom of expression Access to information