Summer 2022

Reporting at Risk

From Kashmir to Russia to Mexico and beyond, journalism is under threat. Reporters Without Borders estimates that nearly three-quarters of the 180 countries on its World Press Freedom Index either completely or partially block the work of newsrooms. The threats to journalists are physical, political and, especially under authoritarian regimes, increasingly existential. In our Reporting at Risk series, Nieman Reports is publishing essays by journalists who are managing to do vital independent reporting — often at great personal risk.

Download PDF

COVER: Reporting at Risk

Confronting “Press Freedom Predators”

By Ann Marie Lipinski• From the Curator• July 8, 2022

If I asked you to name a country where press freedom has grown stronger in recent years, could you? How about countries where press freedom is increasingly under attack? If you’re still struggling with the … Read more

With Dom, We All Died a Little Bit

By Natalia Viana• Reporting at Risk• July 6, 2022

“Please never go into the Amazon rainforest again.” The message blinked on my phone right after the news of the disappearance of British journalist Dom Phillips started coming out. Phillips was working on a book in … Read more

What It’s Like Working in the Deadliest Country in the World for Journalists

By Marcela Turati• Reporting at Risk• July 12, 2022

Every time a reporter is killed, his or her death explodes in the hearts of the country’s other journalists — like an earthquake with expanding effect. It doesn’t matter whether they knew the victim or not. Each murder … Read more

In Mexico, A Mix of Violence and Economics Threatens Local News Organizations

By Javier Garza Ramos• Reporting at Risk• April 26, 2022

Leer en español. When the history of Mexico’s transition to democracy is told, there is usually a celebration of the journalists and newspapers that fought to be independent and opened spaces for voices opposing the one-party rule the country … Read more

How Latin American Journalists Are Using Collaborations To Get Around Censorship Laws

By Carlos Eduardo Huertas• Reporting at Risk• August 3, 2022

Leer en español. Violence shook El Salvador’s streets yet again in late March. With 87 random murders, the country’s gangs sent a message to the administration of President Nayib Bukele in response to what they saw as a betrayal. Read more

“We Should Side with Democracy:” Why the War in Ukraine is Existential for Baltic Journalists

By Karolis Vyšniauskas• Reporting at Risk• June 30, 2022

When Reporters Without Borders released its latest World Press Freedom Index in May, the findings were grim: In more than 130 countries, the situation for journalists was classified as being “problematic” or worse, and the number of countries … Read more

Piercing Putin’s Truth Blockade

By Roman Anin and Sharon Moshavi• Reporting at Risk• May 27, 2022

This war, like any war, has no shortage of heroes: not only the Ukrainian recruits fighting valiantly against a far larger Russian military, but also journalists, Ukrainian and foreign, covering the war at great personal risk. These correspondents deserve our … Read more

I witnessed Orbán crack down on Hungary’s free press. Here’s my advice to journalists facing similar threats

By András Pethő• Reporting at Risk• June 9, 2022

This is a strange time to be a Hungarian journalist. Working in a small Central European country, we had not been used to getting international attention. In recent years, however, we have often been approached by journalists from developed democracies, … Read more

In Turkey, Erdoğan’s Crackdown on the Free Press Intensifies

By Emre Kizilkaya• Reporting at Risk• June 22, 2022

Not long after Turkish lawmakers aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration presented the parliament with a bill to criminalize disinformation in late May, a new wave of arrests targeting journalists was launched, underlining the government’s multi-pronged attempt to monopolize … Read more

Tunisian Journalists Face Police Intimidation and Jail Time for Doing Our Jobs

By Hanène Zbiss• Reporting at Risk• June 29, 2022

In the early morning of Oct. 3, 2021, Amer Ayed, a Tunisian journalist and TV presenter at Zitouna TV, was sleeping when police circled his home in the city of Monastir and dragged him in for questioning. “They scared my … Read more

In Ghana, Only a Handful of Journalists Are Able To Do Critical Reporting

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi• Reporting at Risk• July 19, 2022

From a distance, and on paper, Ghana is a thriving democracy in a region beset with political and social turmoil. The country’s 1992 constitution has an entire chapter dedicated to freedom of the press, and three years ago on March … Read more

The Myanmar Junta’s Wanton Violence Is Forcing Journalists to Flee

By Danny Fenster• Reporting at Risk• July 13, 2022

On Nov. 21, 2021, my colleague at investigative news magazine Frontier Myanmar, Zar, wiped her laptop and phone of all data and packed them into a single bag with a few other belongings, then headed for Yangon International … Read more

Judges, Too, Can Be Enemies of the Press

By Steven Gan• Reporting at Risk• June 1, 2022

Enemies of press freedom come in all shapes and sizes. Some are in military uniforms. Others in business suits. A few are in religious garb. And there are those in fancy robes too. And while restrictive laws are the main … Read more

In the Philippines, Will Marcos Give the Media Hell Like Duterte Did?

By Glenda M. Gloria• Reporting at Risk• June 23, 2022

A day after Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was proclaimed president of the Philippines on May 25, he granted an interview to only three reporters while his spokesperson faced the rest of the media that day. Two of the … Read more

American Democracy is Under Threat — and Newsrooms Are Mobilizing to Cover It

By Celeste Katz Marston• Features• June 13, 2022

Think about a “threat to democracy,” and it’s easy to conjure up an image of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — the nation’s very seat of government besieged by rioters convinced that the presidential election was rigged. Read more

Features

Why Newsrooms Are Collaborating to Take on Ambitious Reporting Projects

By Stefanie Murray• Features• May 18, 2022

When The (Bergen) Record in northern New Jersey began tracking Covid-19 deaths and writing profiles about the deceased in March 2020, the task seemed manageable. Jim O’Neill, a longtime editor at The Record, handled the project. He combed through … Read more

A New Kind of Partnership: Journalists and Civil Society Organizations Are Teaming Up

By Sarah Stonbely• Features• July 19, 2022

Since 2017, journalists from eight newsrooms in five African countries have partnered with Code for Africa (CfA), a network of civic democracy and data journalism labs, to create sensors.Africa, a project that puts air quality sensors at schools, … Read more

In Today’s Journalism Job Market, Having Your Own Brand Is Key To Survival

By Julia Craven• Features• March 23, 2022

Which came first: The reporting or the followers? The writing or the platform? The journalist or the brand? It can be hard to tell. I’ve mulled over this contemporary paradox since veteran New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and Taylor … Read more

Live @ Lippmann

Companies Rely On Journalism To Not Cover Tech. Here’s How To

Niemans @ Work

Sounding

Channeling a Childhood Passion into a Journalism Career

By Reuben Fischer-Baum

Nieman Reports issue archive