When journalism is silenced, power goes unchecked — and people suffer, especially those already marginalised. That’s why Media Defence exists: to protect journalists facing legal threats, so they can keep reporting the truth without fear of retaliation.
Since 2008, we’ve supported over 2,000 journalists and independent outlets around the world. But the legal landscape has grown darker. In 2024, we took on a record 228 new cases — double the number from just four years ago.
Legal threats have become one of the most effective tools for suppressing journalism. Repressive media laws, tax audits, forced registration, and internet blocks are designed to make journalism harder by stealth. More brazen tactics include arbitrary detention, prosecutions under vague national security laws, and “fake news” charges — all used to punish public interest reporting.
In some cases, the threats escalate further. Journalists have been placed under intrusive surveillance, including through military-grade spyware like Pegasus. Others have endured far graver abuses: enforced disappearance, rendition, torture, war crimes, and extrajudicial killing. 2024 was one of the deadliest years on record, with at least 122 journalists killed – two-thirds were Palestinian media workers killed by Israel.
And it’s not just states. Private actors — corporations, oligarchs, organised crime groups — increasingly use civil suits and legal intimidation to silence scrutiny. These tactics may not involve prisons or weapons, but they can be devastating and chilling. For small outlets and independent or citizen journalists, with no legal departments or safety nets, they’re left to defend themselves or walk away from the work altogether.
Last year, Media Defence supported cases involving all these violations — funding legal defences, backing lawyers who are fighting for accountability, and increasingly representing journalists in international and regional courts.
At any given time, we support approximately 700 ongoing cases in over 100 countries. But these are not just numbers. They are lives disrupted and, in many cases, derailed. It’s a devastating loss — not only for them, but for all of us, because we’re left less informed about the world we live in as a result.
Legal Defence That Makes a Difference
The good news? High quality and accessible legal support changes outcomes — and keeps the truth in circulation.
Over the past year alone, we’ve seen how our support can protect journalists’ voices, push back against those trying to silence them, and help keep them reporting.
Take Thai investigative journalist Chutima Sidasathian, who has spent years covering corruption and refugee rights, despite persistent legal intimidation. In 2024, she was acquitted of three criminal defamation charges after being targeted with SLAPP suits for exposing a corrupt lending scheme tied to public officials. We supported her defence — as we did in 2015, when she faced similar charges for reporting on the trafficking of Rohingya migrants.
In Colombia, we continue to support Claudia Julieta Duque, whose decades-long fight for justice saw the conviction of former Deputy Director of Colombia’s now-defunct secret police, the DAS for her aggravated psychological torture — a landmark step in a case that symbolises the state’s brutal efforts to silence investigative reporting. While further investigations are needed to hold all those responsible to account, we are proud to support Duque’s legal efforts, which have been instrumental in challenging impunity and securing accountability.
In another significant ruling, the High Court of Kenya at Kajiado declared the killing of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif unlawful. Sharif was fatally shot in the head by police near a roadblock outside Nairobi on October 23, 2022. Authorities initially described the shooting as a case of mistaken identity, but the close range of the shooting and bullet trajectory raised serious questions about whether the killing was deliberate. The court’s decision marks an important step toward accountability and ensures that the case — and the pursuit of justice led by Sharif’s widow, journalist Javeria Siddique — will continue.
Strategic Litigation: Challenging Repression at the Source
Beyond individual cases, strategic litigation continues to be a powerful tool in resisting creeping authoritarianism: it strengthens international standards on freedom of expression and directly challenges laws and court decisions that are making the day-to-day environment for journalists more hostile.
In late 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found Vietnamese journalist Nguyễn Lân Thắng’s detention violated international law — following a legal complaint filed by Media Defence. A prominent human rights defender, Nguyễn was held incommunicado for over six months before being convicted under a vague law often used to silence dissent.
Media Defence has long been supporting the community of independent bloggers and citizen journalists in Viet Nam, who have been decimated in recent years as a result of the government’s heavy-handed response to criticism. We will continue to challenge these detentions and call on the international community do more to pressure Viet Nam to release those journalists.
Next week, we’ll share more of these stories — and the impact of our work — in our Annual Impact Report.
But today we ask for your support.
In a world increasingly shaped by disinformation and fear, journalists need allies. Media Defence will always be one of them – but we need back up.
In a year where journalism is under attack and funding for press freedom is shrinking, our work is more urgent than ever. A freeze in U.S. funding and shifting priorities in Europe have left organisations including ours facing serious shortfalls.
These cuts aren’t abstract. They directly threaten our ability to defend journalists like Claudia Julieta Duque, Chutima Sidasathian, Javeria Siddique and Nguyễn Lân Thắng.
Your support will help us defend them in courtrooms around the world — so they can keep reporting the truth the rest of us rely on.
When journalists are silenced, we all lose access to the truth.
