Now You See Me – Now You Don't: Journalists’ Experiences With Surveillance

This academic paper explores the experiences of journalists with surveillance, and their impact on journalists’ sense of freedom to fulfil their watchdog role. The paper contributes to increasing research interest in “journalism after Snowden” by addressing the intangible conditions under which journalists may or should work, and ultimately also how widely accepted standards of democratic liberties are challenged.

The Author largely concentrated on the testimonies of journalists operating in liberal,democratic countries, because they wanted to underline the fragility of modern day investigative journalism. The effect of state surveillance of journalists appears to be, on an immediate level,psychological, in particular through the sparking and fuelling of fear and“paranoia”andwith regard to their own personal safety, and that of their sources.

The space for in-depth combative investigative reporting is shrinking. Combined with financial pressures on the media, surveillance creates an asphyxiating environment for investigative journalists. However, this is not merely a matter of surveillance exercised as electronically mediated observation: it is both electronic and physical, in a continuum of online and offline harassment and intimidation. The journalists interviewed during this work have experienced various forms of repressive control, depending on the tolerated political system of the country within which they worked.

Author: Anthony Mills