G7 pledges to counter ‘state-driven censorship’ and help protect journalists
- ‘Around the world, journalists face harassment and violence for their work, and press freedom is being restricted online and offline,’ say G7 media ministers
- A 2022 assessment of global press freedoms by Reporters Without Borders places China 175th out of 180 countries
The Group of Seven countries pledged on Wednesday to improve efforts to counter censorship and state-backed disinformation campaigns, amid deepening scrutiny in Washington of China’s and Russia’s treatment of journalists and governance of the internet.
“We commit to … act against state-driven censorship, network connectivity disruptions and media bans of the free press, while bolstering the important role of independent media,” media ministers from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain wrote in a joint statement.
Summarising a ministerial meeting that took place in Germany on Sunday, the communique included commitments to counter disinformation and propaganda, promote transparency around media ownership and strengthen efforts to protect journalists from threats.
“When democracies are under attack, all too often journalists and members of the media are the first to have their human rights curtailed and to face threats and repression,” the G7 ministers wrote.
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How China censors the internet
They raised particular concerns that women in journalism were “disproportionately impacted by threats and attacks, which are more often gendered and sexualised than threats against their male counterparts and increasingly take place online”.
The communique did not mention China by name, but it came weeks after research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that women journalists covering China, especially those of Asian descent, were being targeted by a coordinated harassment campaign online. The report said the Twitter accounts publishing the abuse belonged to a network that the social media platform has linked to Chinese state actors.
