Mobile apps and data collection deployed to help contain the coronavirus have a troubling side effect — the potential for long-term government invasions of privacy and surveillance that could be used against independent journalists.  In China, residents currently entering buildings, stores and transit systems must use an app that determines their health status and tracks their location, In Honduras, the government imposed a state of emergency that revokes articles of the country’s constitution, including the right to free expression, and South Africa passed a law criminalizing disinformation about the virus or the government’s response to it, CPJ reported.   CPJ’s Radsch told VOA that laws around false news were providing cover for governments to restrict independent reporting. She said CPJ has seen incidents in recent weeks of governments in China, Thailand and Iran retaliating against journalists for their coverage of the virus.   In Egypt, at least 21 journalists were jailed on false news charges at the time of CPJ’s annual prison census in December. Imprisoned journalists are at further risk because of poor conditions in overcrowded prisons.  Authorities in Egypt suspended prison visits for 10 days, cutting off vital food supplies for prisoners whose relatives provide meals.  Egyptian authorities this week arrested a writer, Ahdaf Soueif, and several activists who protested conditions for political prisoners, PEN America, a free speech group, reported.  Karin Deutsch Karlekar, director of Free Expression at Risk Programs at PEN America, said in a statement, “[The arrests] shows the Egyptian government’s reflexive response to the coronavirus pandemic is to silence dissident voices to protect the state’s national image, disregarding both public health and fundamental rights.”  Elsewhere, journalists have questioned whether newsgathering is considered essential work during lockdowns. The U.K. based Press Gazette reported that foreign journalists in Italy were questioning whether they are exempt from the regulations during the lockdown.
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