The Infodemic: How Censorship and Lies Made the World Sicker and Less Free

How censorship turned a terrible disease into an assault on rights

As COVID-19 spread around the world, so did government censorship. The Infodemic lays bare not just old-fashioned censorship, but also the mechanisms of a modern brand of "censorship through noise," which moves beyond traditional means of state control--such as the jailing of critics and restricting the flow of information--to open the floodgates of misinformation, overwhelming the public with lies and half-truths.

Joel Simon and Robert Mahoney, who have traveled the world for many years defending press freedom and journalists' rights as the directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists, chart the onslaught of COVID censorship beginning in China, through Iran, Russia, India, Egypt, Brazil, and inside the Trump White House. Increased surveillance in the name of public health, the collapse of public trust in institutions, and the demise of local news reporting all contributed to help governments hijack the flow of information and usurp power. Full of vivid characters and behind the scenes accounts, The Infodemic shows how under the cover of a global pandemic, governments have undermined freedom and taken control--this new political order may be the legacy of the disease.

Author: Joel Simon, Robert Mahoney
Publisher: Columbia Global Reports
Published: 04/26/2022
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 7.40h x 4.96w x 0.71d
ISBN: 9781735913681


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2022

About the Author
Simon, Joel: - Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written widely on media issues, contributing to Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. He has led numerous international missions to advance press freedom. He is the author of The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, and We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom.

Robert Mahoney is deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, and has worked as a Reuters correspondent with postings in Southeast Asia, West Africa, India, Israel, France and Germany.