Introduction
Over the past 20 years, the global information ecosystem has been redefined by citizen journalism. Having a smartphone, social media, and access to the internet, ordinary citizens has now become frontline reporters, recording injustice, reporting corruption, and giving a voice to people who would otherwise remain unheard. This low-top-up news style has democratized information and undermined the supremacy of traditional media.
However, with this empowerment comes massive risk. Citizen journalists are often harassed, jailed, censored online and even beaten up. The fact that many of them do not have an institutional protection that guards professional journalists is what makes them such an easy target. Their experiences bring out a bigger picture of the struggle of free speech where they demonstrate how governments, corporations and influential groups fight to suppress inconvenient truths.
This paper will discuss the dangers of citizen journalism, relate them to broader discussions on freedom of expression, and suggest that digital protection of freedom of speech should be promoted globally as a way of protecting democracy in the digital society.
The Rise of Citizen Journalism
Citizen journalism has a long history. Pamphleteers, diarists, and local chroniclers have been exchanging information outside official purview for a long time. This practice however had an unprecedented extent with the digital revolution. Through Twitter, YouTube, Tik Tok, and livestreaming platforms, ordinary citizens are able to stream real-time descriptions of events to the rest of the world.
Notable examples include:
The Arab Spring (2010-2012): Everlasting proofs of brutal police brutality and political repression were made available through videos taken via phones, which gave rise to solidarity throughout the world.
The EndSARS demonstrations in Nigeria (2020): Protesters captured the shooting of protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate and disseminated it on social media, disproving the authorities and compelling the international community to notice.
Hong Kong protests (2019): Youthful protesters were able to share the crackdowns of the police by using encrypted messaging software and live streams.
These are some examples of how citizen journalism can be powerful or dangerous to some regimes that are based on keeping information secret.
Harassment and Intimidation
Harassment is the initial level of suppression most grassroots reporters face. It takes multiple forms:
Online Harassment
Cyber bullying is rampant. Troll armies (some of which are state sponsored) are used to litter comment boxes with abuse. Doxxing, which is the disclosure of personal information such as home addresses or family details is used to intimidate and silence. Female and minority citizen journalists are usually subjected to gendered and racist shaming attempts aimed at undermining their authority.
Indicatively, in India, female journalists working independently to report on communal violence have been targets of organized White-led hate campaigns on the internet, therefore rendering them susceptible to real-life attacks.
Offline Intimidation
In the real world, harassment is more physical. Routine police surveillance, befriending warnings, and arbitrary arrests are typical. Citizen reporters filming anti-war protests have reported regular visits by the police in Russia. In Turkey, people who share critical video content run the risk of being called before the security agencies.
The intention is rather obvious: to establish an atmosphere of fear that will deter any engagement with grassroots reporting.
Imprisonment and Legal Suppression
Imprisonment is perhaps the most chilling threat against citizen journalists. States tend to use ambiguous laws to censor dissent.
Egypt: Blogging has seen many bloggers sent to jail due to publication of false information as they documented police brutality.
China: Zhang Zhenling, who was a citizen reporter covering the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Wuhan, was sentenced to a severe prison term.
Belarus: Dozens of independent reporters and livestreamers have been arrested and deprived of due process in the 2020 protests.
These arrests are carried out by governments in the claims of national security or even fighting fake news. Though in reality, these laws criminalize truth telling.
The Problem of Legal Gray Areas
The provision of protection to citizen journalists in many countries is not clear. They are regarded as ordinary citizens since they usually work without being accredited as a journalist and therefore have no right to claim journalistic privileges. This gap in the law makes them powerless in the face of states who are keen to punish dissent.
Censorship and Control of platforms Online
Citizen journalists do face barriers on the internet even when they are not being directly harassed by the state. The digital public square is becoming more and more dominated by governments and corporations.
Content Takedowns
Video content and accounts labeled by the authorities are regularly removed by social media. Indicatively, when Myanmar protests erupted, Facebook took down live video claiming to stop violence incitement, although critics said Facebook blocked footage of the crimes.
Algorithmic Suppression
Citizen journalists are usually disproportionately harmed by algorithms created to fight against “misinformation”. Even the recording of a video with a smartphone without a professional editor will be tagged as unreliable, even when it records the reality that cannot be denied.
Internet Shutdowns
Probably the worst form of censorship is to close down the internet completely. In elections or demonstrations in such countries as Uganda, or in the Kashmir, part of India, and Iran, government has blocked connectivity to curb the transmission of grassroots coverage.
Corporate Complicity
Sometimes technology companies even obey censorship laws in order to stay connected to the market. By this, they end up giving strength to authoritarian regimes. The conflict between the profit and human rights is not resolved yet.
Physical Danger and Violence
Though the level of digital suppression is high, the worst risk to citizen journalists is physical violence.
Mexico: Reporters who do independent investigations into drug cartels are abducted and assassinated. They are vulnerable without the safeguards of newsrooms.
Syria: Local news reporters who covered atrocities during the civil war were hunted by the state security as well as extremists.
Nigeria and Sudan: Security agents have beaten, detained or killed citizen journalists who have been reporting protests.
These instances demonstrate a cruel paradox: even as citizen journalism democratizes the act of reporting, it places the individual in deadly danger without the benefits of press credentials or global support.
Freedom of speech vs. Fake news
Misinformation Critics say that rumors or misinformation can be propagated by unverified grassroots reporting. This is a legitimate concern. Unvetted citizen journalism sometimes inflates fake news. But in authoritarian regimes, this issue is usually turned against the people to justify oppression.
The issue is the real concern with balancing between free speech and responsible reporting. Solutions include:
- Media literacy programs: Training the masses to be information savvy.
- Collaborations: Independent news outlets and citizen journalists can collaborate to form genuine and verified partnerships.
- Technology solutions: Decentralized solutions and blockchain-based validating tools can be useful in authenticating grassroots reporting.
Censorship of citizen journalists will never be the answer. It is merely a way of shutting out valuable truths.
The Broader Struggle for Free Expression
The blocking of grassroots reporting is linked to broader battles of power and of control of the story.
- Governments are afraid to lose control of information monopoly.
- Corporations are worried about their reputation and business interests being damaged.
- Political elites are afraid of corruption or malpractices being unravelled.
The act of silencing citizen journalists is not only the act of silencing individual voices. It is of suppressing democratic involvement and undermining accountability.
This is in line with the wider international patterns where freedom of speech is being besieged. The digital age has escalated the fight over information control, whether through surveillance legislation in liberal democracies or pure censorship in dictatorships.
Why Global Support Is Essential
Citizen journalists are at the point of truth. But they are frequently lonely, underfinanced, and unguarded. Their role needs to be strengthened on a global footing.
Legal Protections
NGOs and international organizations should push to have citizen journalism legalized, which will give immunity under laws of press freedom.
Digital Security
Grassroots reporters must have access to safe communication applications, they should train in encryption, and they should have methods to prevent surveillance online.
Global Solidarity
Governments can be pressured to be held accountable by using campaigns that highlight imprisoned citizen journalists. In other nations, international lobbying has been directly associated with the release of imprisoned journalists.
Corporate Accountability
Technology platforms should be answerable to prioritizing human rights. It is essential to demonstrate transparency in moderation decisions and avoid authoritarian pressure.
The citizen journalists will continue being easy targets of repression unless world support is given to them. Through it, they are able to keep giving voice to the marginalized and empower democracy.
Conclusion
One of the biggest democratic innovations of the 21 st century is citizen journalism. It is the source of strength to record the truth, organize the masses and to make the authorities answerable. But there is nothing more serious in the consequences of this empowerment: harassment, imprisonment, censorship, death.
The threats to citizen journalists represent the larger struggles on the freedom of speech. Governments as well as corporations desire to retain narrative control, which is usually detrimental to the truth. This is not just an assault on the individuals, but an assault on democracy itself.
To safeguard citizen journalists is not optional, but a necessity. The most pressing actions to protect them are global solidarity, legal reform, corporate responsibility and digital security. Citizen journalists are in several ways the frontline soldiers of the free expression. Their fight is the fight of humanity and the protection of their labor is the major concern to the continuation of open societies in the future.
