Mijke Slot is an assistant professor of Media and Communication at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, and conducts research into public trust in journalism and innovation in journalism. She is academic coordinator of the master Media & Journalism and is also a member of the editorial board of Erasmus Magazine.
What does press freedom actually mean?
“To understand this, it is best to look at the annual report on press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. Each year, that organisation examines five indicators to determine how free the press is in a country: does the political context provide news organisations with sufficient independence? Can they stand on their own financially? Is the legislation in order, and what is the social context, such as public trust? Finally, the research examines the safety of journalists.”
How is the Netherlands positioned in that report?
“We are usually in the top ten, except in 2022. That year we dropped to 28th place due to the murder of crime journalist Peter R. de Vries. Last year, the Netherlands climbed back up to 3rd place from 4th. Still, the situation is not very positive, although other countries fare even worse. According to the report, press freedom worldwide is currently at a low point.”
Erasmus Magazine and Profielen (our colleagues from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences) are organising a conference on journalism in higher education on Thursday 12 June. In the lead-up, we celebrate press freedom with a series of articles.
For the first time in history, the situation for journalists around the world is deemed ‘difficult’, according to the report. How is that?
“This is mainly due to the political and economic situation. News organisations struggle to generate sufficient income and can pay their journalists less. Journalistic companies are merging into larger conglomerates, which makes it harder to remain independent and renders organisations more susceptible to influences from, for example, politicians.
“In America, Trump has declared war on journalistic organisations. Not all of them can attend press conferences in the White House anymore. Influencers now ask questions like: ‘Mr. Trump, how do you manage to look so fit?’ This is concerning. He is also filing lawsuits against news media that create unfavourable broadcasts, such as the case against Paramount over a CBS broadcast. This trend is seen in the Netherlands, albeit to a lesser extent, with Wilders, who referred to journalists as ‘scum’ in 2021, or Claudia van Zanten from the BBB who questioned the integrity of the national news broadcaster NOS in parliament.”
Most news media in the Netherlands operate independently; how do politicians still influence journalism?
“The government cannot dictate what the NOS, for example, tells us. But what if our government states that we don’t need that public broadcaster? The government funds the NPO. Wilders even wants to abolish the public broadcaster. We are not there yet, but significant cuts are already underway.
“That certainly impacts the reliability and variety of reporting. According to a report from Reuters, people are increasingly distrustful of the news. At the same time, the reliability of news organisations in the Netherlands is relatively high. The NOS ranks first, with 82 per cent. So things are also going well in the Netherlands.”
Is journalism to blame for the loss of trust in news?
“Partly yes. If you fail to build a good relationship with your audience, you are not doing your job properly. In America, for example, many news media leaned towards the Democrats, while only a few leaned towards the Republicans, such as Fox News and Breitbart. You often hear in the Netherlands that journalism is a left-leaning elite. One can question whether the media truly represents the Dutch people.
“But press freedom is an issue that concerns everyone, not just journalists. Sharing information that we cannot all investigate ourselves is very important for society. This means that journalists and news organisations must do better to provide a well-represented picture of what is happening in the Netherlands. With more diversity in their newsrooms, making it easier for people to see themselves represented in the news.
“Politicians must ensure that they safeguard press freedom in legislation and that journalists can perform their work safely. There is new European legislation stating that all Europeans have the right to access good information. This is a positive step. However, the public must also recognise how important journalism is. We often take independent journalism for granted, but it is not inherently so. Just look at America or Hungary and Slovakia, where it is under severe pressure.”
It sometimes seems that no one believes the ‘mainstream media’ anymore.
“Trust is not uniform across all groups. Among younger audiences, trust in news is declining more than among older ones. This might be because many young people only see news on social media. There is a growing group that doesn’t even have news apps on their phones. Even when I ask in my lecture hall of media and communication students, many really only follow news through social media. And the more time you spend on social media, the more likely you are to come across information that is incorrect. So, in a way, the declining trust can be explained.”
That is rather cynical; young people do not trust traditional media because they see so much nonsense on social media.
“Yes, that is true. The question is, how can you regain trust? How do you ensure that people know where to go for reliable information?”
News media continually try to engage a younger audience, which proves quite challenging. Every journalistic conference focuses on this topic: how do we win over 16-year-olds? Why is it not working?
“Regional media have never attracted a very young audience. But the bigger question is: how do you interest young people in the news? News organisations indeed struggle with this. It is not easy to compete with the YouTubes, TikToks, and Instagrams of this world. News organisations often find it challenging to connect with the experiences of young people. There are good examples, such as what the NOS does with NOSop3, or Omrop Fryslân with memes about the Frisian language. But there could be many more initiatives like these.
“Additionally, many news organisations have a strong corporate culture that hinders innovation. It has taken news organisations a long time to break free from the idea of the morning newspaper and to make the transition to online journalism.
“I believe that innovation in journalism is quite complicated, especially because you have a public function that cannot be changed lightly like a product from a factory. However, I think the innovative character at news organisations leaves much to be desired. Journalists are always busy, so the focus is primarily on today’s deadline, rather than on where we stand in five years.”
An Instagram account like CestMocro successfully engages young people and has more followers than NOSop3. What would happen if everyone only followed such platforms for their news?
“A platform like CestMocro does not create its own news. They share what traditional media produces, often adding their commentary. I believe many people do not realise how much time, money, and effort journalism truly requires.
“Most people consider journalism important. But connecting consequences to that and paying for the news is something almost no one does. Thus, you see that journalistic organisations, which thrived in the 1990s with all the subscriptions, now find it much harder. The lack of awareness about this is not something news organisations can solve alone; it is something we could address in education.”
Are children learning enough about journalism in school?
“My son is in year six, and he watches the youth news programme every day with his class. That provides a great context in which to discuss the news and its importance. However, when children reach secondary school, they get their own smartphones. Their classmates and friends become their main focus. This is compounded by new technologies like AI, which make it harder to distinguish what is real and what is fake. This combination does concern me about the future of our information provision.”
Another indicator of press freedom is safety. In recent years, many journalists have been killed by state violence. In Gaza alone, two hundred have died. Journalists are regularly targeted deliberately: Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by an Israeli soldier. And Russia sent Viktoria Rosjtsjyna back without her organs after she had been tortured for months. Is this something that happens more frequently now than in the past, that states deliberately target journalists?
“A lot of journalists have indeed been killed in Gaza in recent years. Physical violence is the most visible attack on press freedom. But whether violence against journalists is increasing worldwide? My estimate would be no. According to the report from Reporters Without Borders, the safety of journalists has improved from 60.4 to 66.5.
“I do think you can see that aggression towards journalists is rising at various levels, particularly against female journalists or those from minority groups. They face a lot of online death threats and curses. We have in the Netherlands PersVeilig, an initiative where journalists can report feeling unsafe while doing their jobs. There, you see that reported incidents are increasing.”
What can we as a society do to protect journalists?
“That is indeed taken seriously. The police and the Public Prosecution Service are collaborating with PersVeilig to improve the situation. A good example is the Sunneklaas celebration in Ameland, where there was much aggression against journalists last year. This year, they have worked together to ensure a better outcome.”
