For some time the media has been facing tremendous pressure from the authorities all around the world. Harsh regulatory measures as well as harassment and arrest of dissenting journalists have greatly squeezed the space for free reporting and expression of views.

Independent journalists are variously intimidated and sometimes physically manhandled. Investigative journalism is a special target of corrupt governments, which do not want their misdoings to be brought to public notice. Legal provisions related to defamation, sedition and national security are increasingly being employed to criminalise lawful journalistic activities under the guise of protecting public order and national integrity.

A new UNESCO report has revealed that the misuse of financial crimes to target and silence independent media is on the rise globally. The report, titled ‘The Misuse of Financial Laws to Pressure, Silence and Intimidate Journalists and Media Outlets’, says that financial crimes have been found to be more effective in silencing media and journalists as they do not  need  a link to content and are not subjected to the same international scrutiny as laws targeting media.

The report is part of the UNESCO series ‘World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development’ and comes at a critical time for world media. The misuse of financial laws not only damage the reputation of a journalist or media outlet but also make them financially unviable. This is because such cases involve high legal fees and imposition of fines. To quote the report, “the use of specious allegations based on financial laws to silence independent journalists and media outlets is becoming more widespread and frequent, with a chilling effect on freedom of expression.”

It is easy to understand why authoritarian governments are resorting to financial laws to stifle independent reporting. Restrictive laws relating to the media are nationally and internationally scrutinised and opposed and courts too hold the view that journalists accused of any wrongdoing should be proceeded against under the normal laws of the land. So authoritarian governments now increasingly misuse financial laws to muzzle the voice of dissent. The UNESCO report quotes numerous examples of financial laws crackdown against journalists all over the world, particularly in Eastern Europe and Asia and Africa. The report highlights that in South Asia, extortion charges have been increasingly misused since the mid-2000s. The Modi government in India has been very active in this regard, charging independent media outlets with crimes related to foreign funding and money laundering.

The UNESCO has examined more than 120 allegations of financial crimes during the years 2005-2024, of which 60 per cent occurred between 2019 and 2023. This is indicative of a trend, meaning  that in recent years there has been a sharp increase in the use of these allegations against journalists. A close scrutiny of various cases reveals a wide range of allegations that are usually hurled against journalists who uncover financial scandals and abuse of authority and public money by corrupt politicians. The allegations include extortion, tax evasion and money laundering, blackmail, financing terrorism, fraud, embezzlement and unlawfully accepting foreign funds. Such accusations  lower the media in public esteem as well as damage its credibility in the public eye.

Among the cases reviewed, at least 56 contain charges of alleged extortion, with the majority arising being in Asia and the Pacific, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Tax evasion and money laundering are the second and third most misused charges brought against journalists and media outlets. In Asia and the Pacific, 44 cases were reviewed, many of which involved groups of journalists being jointly charged. In those cases, tax evasion or tax fraud, extortion, money laundering, and illegally receiving foreign funds were the most frequently used charges. The earliest five cases were recorded in 2005, but over half of these cases took place in the last four years (2020-2024). In 20 cases, multiple charges were brought, and in 23 cases, journalists were held in pre-trial detention, with jail terms of between five and 15 years being issued in seven cases.

According to UNESCO, authorities try to intimidate journalists during times of protests and electoral campaigns and is part of a wider crackdown to silence critical voices. The UNESCO report says that by misusing financial laws, authorities freeze assets of individual journalists as well as  media outlets. By disrupting livelihoods, the authorities concerned succeed in discouraging independent reporting. For an average media person, the prospect of financial ruin and imprisonment has a dampening effect on his or her professional activities.

The UNESCO report should be an eye opener to all human rights activists and advocates of freedom of expression. The report emphasises that public awareness regarding the misuse of such laws should be raised while the judiciary should also play its role to check the excesses of autocratic governments. The report says there is a gap in those mechanisms built to fight corruption. Many anti-corruption conventions and tools are considered ineffective in offering protection to journalists and even misused to target journalists covering corruption. According to UNESCO, journalists play an essential role in society by investigating and uncovering wrongdoing. It is therefore the duty of civil society as a whole to protect them from being targeted with unfounded allegations of financial crimes in order to silence them.