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Computational Social Science · GPV 2025

Neo‑Colonial
Networks

How arms, aid, and colonial history predict the silencing of journalists across the Global South

1992–2024  ·  115 countries  ·  CPJ + SIPRI + OECD DAC + COLDAT

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1,668Journalists killed
115Countries
32Years of data

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Four layers
of dependency

Arc layers — toggle
Arms transfers
Official dev. aid
Economic dependency
Colonial ties
Year
2010
19932024
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Four layers of dependency

This project asks whether journalist killings in the Global South are a predictable consequence of structural dependency — not random violence, but the silencing of voices inconvenient to power.

We model four overlapping networks: arms flows from SIPRI, bilateral aid from OECD DAC, economic neo-colonial scores derived from trade and income asymmetries, and historical colonial ties from COLDAT.

1,668 journalists killed since 1992 with confirmed impunity
Arc layers
Arms Transfers
Weapons deliveries (SIPRI TIV), weighted by volume.
Official Development Aid
Bilateral ODA flows (OECD DAC). Aid as leverage — or as cover.
Economic Dependency
Composite neo-colonial score: trade asymmetry × income gap.
Colonial Ties
Historical colonial relationship (COLDAT).
Country dots — journalist killings
0 killings
1–5 killings
5+ killings
Research pipeline
Built on 10 datasets,
32 years of records
Read the methodology →
10
Datasets
115
Countries
32
Years

"As long as capitalism and imperialism go unchecked, there will always be exploitation — and neocolonialism, which breeds and sustains wars."

— Kwame Nkrumah