IPI Press Freedom Podcasts International Press Institute

As our planet grapples with the devastating effects of climate change, the indispensable role of environmental journalism becomes increasingly apparent. Yet, the right to cover environmental issues remains under siege, not least in Italy:
In the last months of 2023, articles dedicated to the climate crisis in the main Italian newspapers decreased compared to the previous months. 
At the same time, advertisements from polluting companies reached record levels, increasing the print media’s dependency on them at a moment of historical low sales. 
Meanwhile, in the evening TV news, “influenced by the Meloni government's impact on Rai” according to Greenpeace Italy, space for those opposing the ecological transition has doubled.
How can journalists inform the public effectively when the fossil fuel industry has a growing influence on the media platforms? On Earth Day, we confront this question head-on.
Guests:
Barbara Trionfi, former Executive Director at IPI and current Fellow, is the author of the report Climate and Environmental journalism under fire. 
Marta Frigerio is the Editor-in-Chief of RADAR Magazine, a media focusing on environmental issues that is a part of Greenpeace Italy’s new initiative Free Press for Climate.
Producer and Host: Beatrice Chioccioli, Europe Advocacy Officer at the International Press Institute (IPI)
Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI
Other episodes in this series:
Media Freedom in Focus: Untangling media capture in Greece
Navigating Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Act – Media Freedom In Focus
Related links:
New IPI report reveals safety crisis faced by climate and environmental journalists
Voices for Climate - The first network of voices against greenwashing
Environmental journalism: pursuing quality coverage of a global crisis
This podcast series is part of the Media Freedom in Focus project, sponsored by Media Freedom Rapid Response(MFRR), which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries. The MFRR is organized by a consortium led by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) including ARTICLE 19 Europe, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), the International Press Institute (IPI) and Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT).

Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison. For almost one year now, this has been the home of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held on charges of espionage.
Lefortovo is known as one of the most secret prisons in Russia. It is notorious as a place of arrest for high-level personalities detained by Russian authorities on politically motivated charges. Prisoners sent there are typically investigated by the FSB, one of Russia’s most powerful secret services.
In just one moment in March 2023, Evan’s life changed from that of an active reporter to that of a simple prisoner at Lefortovo. One year later, Russian investigators have still produced no proof justifying the charges against him. Instead, they have regularly extended Evan’s pre-trial detention. If convicted, he faces between 10 and 20 years in prison.
While a prisoner exchange with the United States was on the table since Evan was first arrested, the prospect of his release still seems further away than ever.
The IPI global network continues to advocate for his release. Together with other press freedom groups and international media, we demanded that Russian authorities set Evan free, sent him a letter to Lefortovo, spoke to his friends and continuously kept his case at the forefront of our activities by highlighting any updates in the criminal case opened against him.
In this new episode of The Press Freedom Files, published to mark the one-year anniversary of Evan’s arrest, we speak to Polina Ivanova, a correspondent for FT who covers Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Together with Gershkovich, she covered the region for several years from Moscow, prior to his arrest.
In a moving testimony, Polina recounts Evan’s work, his life, and what it was like to see him behind bars over the past year.
Guests: Polina Ivanova, Russia, Ukraine, Caucasus and Central Asia correspondent at FT.
Producer and Host: Karol Łuczka, Eastern Europe Advocacy and Monitoring Officer at IPI.
Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI.
 

Latest episode of Media Freedom In Focus podcast examines findings of new report on threats to independent media in Greece
Independent journalism and watchdog reporting in Greece faces challenges from many sides.
In the last few years, the country has experienced the broad-daylight murder of a crime reporter, multiple threats to the safety of journalists, a sprawling surveillance and spyware scandal and numerous vexatious lawsuits and legal threats against media and journalists, with detrimental consequences for Greek democracy.
However, these immediate challenges sit atop deeper historical and systemic issues including a problematic landscape for independent journalism, weak media pluralism, prolonged economic threats to media viability, entrenched capture of private media by powerful families and owners, and low levels of trust in media.
Greece suffers, in short, from media capture.
A new report, published on 30 January, looks in detail at this situation in Greece for the first time, with damning conclusions about the scale of media capture in Greece, and its impact on the country’s democracy.
Guests: Danai Maragoudaki, a journalist at Greek investigative media outlet Solomon, who also works for The Manifold
Producer and Host: Jamie Wiseman, Europe Advocacy Officer at International Press Institute (IPI)
Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI
Other episodes in this series:
Navigating Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Act - Media Freedom In Focus
Under illegal surveillance – the Greek ‘Predatorgate’ – Media Freedom In Focus
Related links:
New report examines media capture in Greece
Report: Stemming the tide of Greek media freedom decline
 

Sunucu: Cansu Çamlıbel | Konuk: Handan Uslu
IPI Özgür Sohbetler: Türkiye podcast serisinin 44. bölümü yayında!
IPI Özgür Sohbetler’in yeni bölümünde gazeteci Cansu Çamlıbel’in konuğu siyasi mikro hedefleme, algoritmik manipülasyon ve dijital dirençlilik gibi alanlarda faaliyet gösteren Gözlemevi İnternet ve Toplum Araştırmaları Merkezi’nin kurucusu Handan Uslu’ydu.
Uslu; teknoloji şirketlerinin kullandığı algoritmaların dünyanın bilgi ekosistemini oluşturduğunu, Gözlemevi’nin bu firmaların özellikle içerik moderasyonu konusunda hesap verebilirlikten uzak olmasının doğurduğu ihtiyaç üzerine kurulduğunu ve merkez olarak kamuoyunun maruz kaldığı manipülasyon ve zararı ortaya koyan araştırmalar yürüttüklerini aktarıyor.
“Uyku düzeninizden ruh halinize, alışveriş alışkanlıklarınızdan siyasi eğiliminize kadar sizi sizden çok daha iyi tanıyorlar” şeklinde tanımladığı teknoloji şirketlerine hesap sorma yönünde net kriterler belirlemek gerektiğine dikkat çeken Uslu, bunu şöyle örnekliyor ve açıklıyor: “Veriyi işlerken, bu veriyi birine gönderirken ya da bu veri için bir hedefleme yaparken bunun için kullanıcının rızasını almak; kullanıcıyı (özellikle çocukları) +18 şiddet içeren içeriklerden korumak; ifade özgürlüğünü korumak ve nefret söylemini engellemek arasında iyi bir denge kurmak ve de bunun için gerekli operasyonları hayata geçirmek. Bu açıdan baktığımızda, yani beklentilerimizi çok daha net ve basit tutup bu yönde veri oluşturduğumuzda aslında bu firmaların politika ve uygulamalarını etkilemek mümkün.”
Sohbette değinilen konu başlıklarından bazılarını şöyle özetleyebiliriz:
Gözlemevi’nin kuruluş amacı ve faaliyet alanları
Türkiye’de büyük teknoloji şirketlerinin hesap verebilirliği ve içerik regülasyonunun mevcut durumu
Seçim dönemlerinde sosyal medya platformları üzerinden yürütülen (başta siyasi mikro hedefleme olmak üzere) manipülasyon yöntemleri, bu yöntemlerin Türkiye’deki örnekleri ve ortaya çıkarılmasının önündeki engeller 
Siyasi manipülasyon ve dezenformasyonla mücadele etme yöntemleri
Bu kayıt, Avrupa Birliğinin (AB) maddi desteği ile hazırlanmıştır. İçerik tamamıyla Uluslararası Basın Enstitüsü (IPI) sorumluluğu altındadır ve Avrupa Birliğinin görüşlerini yansıtmak zorunda değildir.

A battle is currently underway for the future of Poland’s politicized public media. Since the election of the new coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk in October 2023, the public television TVP has faced drastic reforms.
The new Minister of Culture moved quickly to enact changes at TVP, Polish Radio and the state news agency, which had to different levels been converted into media arms of the former ruling party, Law and Justice.
After promising swift action during the campaign, the new pro-EU government temporarily took a news channel off the air, abruptly dismissed the supervisory bodies of TVP and the news agency, and more recently put the public media into liquidation.
While the Tusk administration has defended these moves as necessary to restore impartiality and dismantle the unethical and biased output of TVP, the former ruling party has criticized the changes as undemocratic and aimed at cementing a new form of political control.
While it’s clear that major reforms were urgently needed to Poland’s public media, there are questions about whether the means used to do so are democratic, legal and truly aimed at increasing pluralistic coverage, rather than simply perpetuating the cycle of politicization after elections that has characterized public media for decades.
Guests: Daniel Tilles, Editor-in-Chief at Notes From Poland
Producer and Host: Jamie Wiseman, Europe Advocacy Officer at International Press Institute (IPI)
Editor: Javier Luque, Head of Digital Communications at IPI
Other episodes in this series:
Navigating Hungary’s Sovereignty Protection Act - Media Freedom In Focus
Related links:
Poland: MFRR reasserts recommendations for democratic reform for press freedom and public media
Upheaval at Polish public broadcaster must lead to comprehensive reform to restore and safeguard independence
 

Latest episode of MFRR In Focus interviews Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi about the potential impact of new law
The situation for Hungary’s embattled independent media is about to become even more challenging. On 12 December, the Hungarian parliament voted to pass the Protection of Sovereignty Act. It was debated for less than two weeks and passed without any serious public consultation.7 Its stated motivation is the protection of Hungarian sovereignty from malign external threats, and the criminalisation of foreign funding to political parties during election campaigns.
A new body will now be established to map and report on perceived threats to national sovereignty and identify bodies or individuals suspected of serving foreign interests or receiving foreign funds. In a country where government politicians have previously smeared some media as serving foreign interests, media have criticized the vague language of the law, and decried the bill as being part of the government’s decade-long attempt to dial up the pressure on critical voices.
Ahead of elections in 2024, and amidst ongoing negotiations with the European Commission over the release of frozen EU funds, the new law looks set to be another divisive issue pitting Budapest against Brussels – and create further uncertainty for media and NGOs.
In this episode of the MFRR In Focus, we spoke to renowned Hungarian journalist Szabolcs Panyi about the details of the law, what its real motivations are, and what impact it will have on the already destabilised independent media community.
Guests: Szabolcs Panyi, investigative editor at VSQUARE and investigative journalist at Direkt36
Producer and Host: Jamie Wiseman, Europe Advocacy Officer at International Press Institute (IPI)
Editor: Javier Luque, head of digital communications at IPI
Other episodes in this series:
Under illegal surveillance – the Greek ‘Predatorgate’
Related links:
Draft Sovereignty Protection Act poses fresh threat to independent media
IPI joins condemnation of passing of Sovereignty Protection Act