Haha reactions per month on independent media posts compared to just 7,000 on State-owned outlets. Adding these reactions to serious reporting is either dark humour or an attempt to troll, meaning harass or mock the media. It is intended to interfere with the media’s right to impart information without fear of harassment. This trolling is most intense at the local level, where Haha reactions grew by +853%. Outlets with an anti-military editorial stance saw a +289% increase in these reactions, while it fell by -49% for pro-military media. This disparity indicates a coordinated effort to psychologically undermine the right to freedom of expression for the most vulnerable journalists operating in high-conflict zones. 8. Conclusion The military’s restrictions have done more than limit the flow of information from the media to their audiences. They have fundamentally undermined the conditions necessary for an open and inclusive digital public square. By making access to media more costly, risky, and technically difficult, these measures have disproportionately excluded poorer and marginalised communities, deepening inequality in access to information and weakening the exercise of fundamental rights. Repression has not At the same time, repression has not translated into translated into legitimacy. Continued public engagement with independent media, alongside the rejection of legitimacy military-affiliated narratives, demonstrates the enduring importance of credible reporting in sustaining democratic resilience. Yet this resilience is being tested by pervasive surveillance, which has curtailed open participation in public debate and forced many forms of expression into quieter, less visible acts of dissent. The longer-term risk is that this repressive information environment will not only suppress expression in the present but also reshape public discourse in ways that are harder to reverse. As audiences become fragmented across increasingly partisan and algorithmically siloed digital spaces, the prospects for shared understanding, inclusive dialogue, and future democratic reconciliation are placed at growing risk. This points to the broader human rights concern that the military’s control over information is being used not simply to censor, but to restructure the public square itself. Protecting access to independent media, privacy, and the conditions for safe public participation is essential not only for freedom of expression but for any future democratic recovery. Page 23 of 24