It appears to be a desperate strategy to silence criticism and dissent in a case that already deeply threatens the nature of journalism and freedom of information.
"There is a danger that instead of encouraging honest, objective journalism and freedom of information as the proper antidote, democracies will resort to censorship or propaganda of their own," says Jennifer Dunham, the project manager behind the report.
The-Latest.Com, the citizen journalism website, used Freedom of Information requests followed up by emails and phone calls over a three month period to gleans the information – and some authorities were less co-operative than others.
Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian News and Media editor-in-chief, said: "The Guardian continues to make great strides in the field of data journalism, and the volume of information and statistics we have gathered since the riots erupted this time last month is vast.
This happens quite often in journalism: the best bits of information languish in notebooks, waiting for the day when they can safely be published.But Wikileaks has given us a flavour of the American embassy's reporting to Foggy Bottom on the vexed subject of Bulgaria's media.
Investigative journalism provides the preponderance of information on counterfeiting compared with relatively scant treatment in the scientific and public health literature [ 40].
How one feels about journalism, and the free flow of information, very much is.
As consumers, creators and ultimately, collaborators, we are creating an ecosystem of information – including journalism – that grows more complex all the time.
Figures released to The-Latest.com, a citizen journalism news website, using freedom of information requests, show that many authorities employ predominately white staff as top decision makers, the posts that usually have the biggest salaries.
Slowly, quietly, the mainstream media have become, for many involved in activism, politics and journalism itself, a secondary source of information, while social networks have become the primary source.
