Mongolian media in 2023: Season's greetings & Annual review from Nest Center
Nest Center is bringing you the key highlights of Mongolia's media industry in 2023.
Firstly, from all of us at Nest Center, we wish you a happy new year in 2024 and beyond. The last year have been very rewarding thanks to all the support we have received from you, our friends who support the freedom of expression and information as the foundation of a democratic society. We hope 2024, a year of almost 60 elections worldwide will bring us closer to our shared value!
For those who are receiving this newsletter for the first time, I apologize for raiding your inbox with this newsletter/season’s greeting.
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There have been apparent hints that 2023 will not be an easy year for Mongolia, especially for the media as the year was only beginning. The unpredictable turn of events have shaped how Nest center managed its resources, which also had a toll on the frequency of this newsletter.
Despite the challenges, 2023 was a year when the Nest Center re-evaluated its existing resources and capacity and have been able to ramp up its capacity (still in progress though). Thanks to the additional resources, we are hoping to be able to keep my previous promise to deliver this newsletter to your inbox once every two weeks, by no later than March of 2024.
With this promise, I bring to you the key highlights of 2023 in the Mongolian media industry.
Shrinking press freedom
The very birth of this newsletter began with the passage of a law called the “Law on protecting human rights on social media” which was effectively vetoed by the president and then nullified. CSOs and the media organizations strongly opposed the law as it violated the “Law on passing laws” by cutting through the process of having a public discussion on the regulations of the law. Additionally, the contents in the legislation included a number of clauses that would effectively limit the freedom of expression. But the passage of the law was only the beginning of a number of legislative developments hinting towards a more closed press and civic space.
The “Law on passing laws” was amended to make public discussion on laws not mandatory for all cases. It now states, “the law will not be required to be discussed by public if the law does not concern totally new social interactions”. This is one of the charges that the “Law on protecting human rights” was vetoed and then nullified as the law was not discussed by the public and was passed in 48 hours after submission to the Parliament. This makes it especially difficult for the civil society to monitor the changes in the legislative environment.
There are currently three concern with the “Criminal Code” of Mongolia.
The “Criminal code” already includes “Dissemination of false information“ under its clause 13.14. It states, “In case of dissemination of clearly false information that attacks the reputation and dignity of an individual, or professional reputation of an entity, the offender is subject to fine of 400-1300 units or public labor of 240-720 hours, or border ban of 1-3 months” (unofficial translation) This clause have been used 20 times since the law was passed. All 20 cases were charged with either a fine or a border ban. 9 of the people who filed for complaint were state officials and 2 of them were Parliament members.
Another threat that is watched closely by the media and civil society is the proposed amendment to the “Criminal code” to add charges of defamation under clause 13.15. The media and civil society have been very actively working to raise awareness on the risks associated with the proposed change to trigger higher self censorship and shrink the media space. The newly appointed Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Enkhbayar Battumur have said in an official letter that he is also against the proposed change while this remains one of the key developments under watch for 2024.
Clause 21.9 is another regulation that journalists have been increasingly targeted by. As a number of cases of state official misconduct and state fund misappropriation have been exposed in 2023 and are under inspection, the clause have been in more demand. It states, “In case a person who have found out facts or information about inspection, an official who have been provided information or facts on inspection as per their designated duty leaks or loses this information, they are subject to fine of 450-5400 units or public labor of 240-720 hours or border ban or 1 month to 1 year” (unofficial translation). This holds regular citizens, including journalists at the same level of responsibility as designated officials limiting investigative journalism capacity according to one journalist who has been repeatedly questioned under this clause.
Historically, the Communications Regulatory Commission an agency that operates the regulation of the digital information space have blocked access to 6 news websites. 2 of the cases took place in 2023, including isee.mn after they published a political satirical animation (which have been taken down) and zarig.mn, 2 days before their editor was detained under charges that the website was used as a tool to disseminate false information by the individual person.
The latter in the previous point, zarig.mn is a website that has the highest social media following in Mongolia. Although there are controversies as to the ethical standards of the website among the journalism practitioners in Mongolia, the editor in chief, Unurtsetseg Naran, has been detained for about a month as of now and the detention period has been extended by another month on the last working day of 2023. Although Nest center disagrees with quality of the journalism and some ethical complications, we support the release of Unurtsetseg Naran who have been unnecessarily detailed for the 6 charges against her. Nest Center is drafting a compilation of information related to the case of Unurtsetseg Naran for our internal monitoring purpose here including our translation of the official police statement. The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a statement calling on Mongolian authorities to release journalist Unurtsetseg Naran.
A 20 year old social media creator M.Sodnomdarjaa was questioned under the clause 13.14 of the “Criminal code” for 6 hours after posting a satirical meme showing the current president of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa after a flood that covered all of Ulaanbaatar this summer. Nest interviewed him along with other individuals about the case and the legal implications of this incident. The video can be accessed here.
Positive development
Nest Center started a network of CSOs, media organizations, academia, legal practitioners, grassroots administrative units and fact-checkers mimicking the Fast First PH initiative by Rappler to be better able to combat political mis/disinformation and amplify fact-checks and quality journalism ahead of and beyond the election of 2024. Currently 16 organizations have united under this initiative supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives in Mongolia, and will hopefully continue to grow.
Also with a vision to support the fact-checking and MIL capacity of the public, Nest Center has started operating student fact-checking clubs at three universities, The National University of Mongolia, The School of Broadcasting and Media Arts and the University of Humanities journalism departments, each working with up to 15 junior and senior students. This initiative supported by UNESCO/IPDC will also support the Fact First Mongolia initiative.
Year-ahead
The most important event of 2024 is the next Parliamentary election. After Mongolia amended its Constitution this year, adding Parliament seats from current 76 to 126, we will have a record number of candidates, including the highest number of female candidates following the female candidate quota to 30 percent from 20. The Parliamentary election will be held in a majority system, taking the key competition to the social media ecosystem. Based on Mongolian Fact-checking Center’s experience working on the two previous elections, dissemination of falsehoods increase proportionally with the number of candidates.
A number of initiatives aimed at increasing the capacity of the civil society organizations and the media, both with focus on urban and local newsrooms in a holistic way to support their capacity to promote social accountability are expected to take place starting in 2024. The key areas of focus will be underlying media literacy of the information consumers, updating the business model to allow more editorial freedom, supporting collaborative efforts of newsrooms and CSOs and combatting political disinformation.
Without doubt, 2024 will be a very important year ahead, and all of us at Nest Center are excited to contribute our share to the advancement of the system.
We will have to depend a lot on this community to continue to support us and share your expertise.
Wish you a happy new year!