Arab journalists have no place: Authorities use digital surveillance to control investigative reporting

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of digital surveillance by Arab authorities, who face risks and threats of surveillance, and how journalists seeking press freedom use tools and techniques to communicate securely, such as open source in journalism. These journalists share and rely heavily on an open-source data ideology. With novel methods and tools, they integrate a new set of actors, competencies, and technologies into journalistic practice, renegotiating and transcending professional boundaries. The methodology of the study was based on in-depth interviews from Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, and Tunisia with a selection of journalists exclusively publishing investigative stories at Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) about corruption during COVID-19 and how journalists are controlled by authorities. In these interviews, journalists reflected on their professionalism amidst the pandemic and rising authoritarian control of journalistic work. The results of the study indicated that journalists in these countries faced many challenges, such as the difficulty of verifying data because authoritarian regimes published incomplete and inaccurate COVID-19 data and used digital surveillance to control news content. While (ARIJ) supported the investigative journalists by using open-source to publish their investigative stories and expose the Arab rulers, journalists from these countries also revealed severe censorship by their respective governments, an element inconsistent with the Arab constitution.