Austria’s Media Landscape has a History of heavy State Involvement – and (fragile) Freedom of the Press

By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Reports Without Borders consistently ranks Austria among the best countries when it comes to press freedom in their annual investigations. In RSF’s 2021 report, Austria ranked 17th – putting into the second-highest bracket of countries altogether and near the top even of the European countries[1]. Curiously, there are some discrepancies…

How Political Intrigue Means that Chicago’s Far South Side is Still Waiting for a Connection to Downtown – Promised in the 60s.

By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Few Chicagoans can remember a time before the promises of a southward extension of the city’s public transportation backbone, the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line. However, none has seen it go beyond a mere promise. Decades have passed since the idea of extending the Red Line, going from the Northern…

2020 Shows greatest global Decline in Freedom yet

By Linus Höller, Northwestern University In the most unusual year of the current millennium, democracy and freedoms around the world suffered at an unprecedented level. This becomes apparent from two much-anticipated reports on the status of freedoms in the world, published by Freedom House and the Economist’s Intelligence Unit. Freedom House’s annual “Freedom in the…

The Decline of Poland’s Press Freedom should serve as a Warning to all of Europe

Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Historical overview of the region’s democratization and backsliding When the “communist” dictatorships of Eastern Europe fell, one by one, in 1989 – and, with the exception of Romania, in a remarkably peaceful fashion – western euphoria was great. These countries and their people, newly “liberated” from their…

Nuclear-armed and with Millions in Poverty: Former British Colony at the Brink of Collapse

Linus HoellerNorthwestern UniversityReporting on the ground from the nation’s third-largest city, Chicago Nearly three weeks after an eventful election in the former British colony known formally as the United States of America, the incumbent far-right president D. Trump has yet to concede to his victorious centrist challenger J. Biden, calling about an unprecedented democratic crisis….