Independent information is under attack from many fronts. Authoritarian and democratic governments, increasingly intolerant of public scrutiny, are implementing strategies to weaken free journalism. At the same time, the major digital platforms have disrupted the media landscape, draining the economic resources of editorial offices and favouring the spread of disinformation.
Journalists who try to expose corruption, abuse of power and injustice, and those who expose the major chains of environmental and social devastation, are often the target of intimidation, spurious lawsuits and defamatory campaigns orchestrated by politicians or interest groups. Some of them have paid for their civil commitment with their lives, as happened to Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed by a bomb in Malta on 16 October 2017. Others face attempts to destroy their reputation by means of fake news and conspiracy theories, as has recently happened to Attilo Biro, a leading Romanian investigative journalist who writes for Context.ro, one of S-INFO’s partners.
Indeed, there are plenty of other examples of journalists who are being victimized because investigative reporting exposes powerful people. To name a few of the more prominent ones:
Giovanni Tizian, who has reported extensively on organized crime with a focus on the ‘Ndrangheta Calabrian mafia, has received numerous threats and has been under police protection for several years.
Roberto Saviano, another prominent Italian journalist and writer well-known for exposing the Mafia, has been under police protection since 2006 because of constant threats to his life.
Wouter De Vriendt, a Belgian journalist and editor known for his investigative work on corruption and political scandals, has been the target of intimidation and legal threats from various political figures, especially after publishing pieces on financial mismanagement and the influence of lobbyists in Belgian politics.
Éric Lemaire is another Belgian investigative journalist who has received threats and attempts to discredit him for his extensive reporting on corruption, organized crime and financial and political scandals. Lemaire has received protection from authorities due to the serious nature of those threats.
Olivier Mouto, the well-known Belgian journalist specializing in corruption and political issues, has also been the target of attempts to discredit him by powerful individuals and interest groups.
Meanwhile, the public is submerged by a constant flow of fake news and propaganda, which confuse public opinion and make it increasingly difficult to distinguish between truth and lies.
When Caruana Galizia was murdered, Maltese citizens were also deprived of a vital source of information about government corruption and wrongdoing. Democracy was weakened as a result; how can citizens decide whether to trust their politicians if they don’t know how these politicians are behaving?
While Daphne was silenced, other journalists – fortunately for democracy – took up the stories she had been working on. They eventually proved her right, many times over. The above sample of journalists attests to the vital investigative work that is being carried out by reporters and writers throughout Europe to expose the perpetrators of crime, corruption and injustice in their countries and across borders.
S-INFO has launched a public campaign highlighting the need to support and protect independent, investigative journalists such as these – whether working in newsrooms, for civil society organisations, or on their own.
The campaign is among S-INFO’s several other efforts to bolster independent journalism. It will lead up to the creation of a S-INFO Manifesto: Journalism for Sustainable Information. This will be a forward-thinking document establishing the core principles of independent journalism and sustainable business models, while fostering increasingly virtuous cooperation with activism, to ensure the media sector’s long-term survival.
Activists are highly dependent on getting reliable information out to the public in service of their various causes. The S-INFO project is exploring the interface between civil society activism and independent journalism as a way to support and strengthen the latter.
Join us in protecting democracy!
How to contribute
- Visit the Manifesto page on our website and complete our survey. Your input will help us build the Manifesto for Sustainable Information.
- Are you an activist? Send us a short video (by the end of May 2025) answering the following question: Why are independent and investigative journalism essential for society and democracy? Why are they important for activism? These videos will be published on our social media channels to broaden the reach of our campaign. Check out our first activist input video here.
- Contact us at communication@sinfo-project.eu if you have further questions