Press Freedom in America and the World
By: Michael Castengera
Tags: Journalism, Press Freedom, First Amendment, News Media Bias, Fake News

The report from the Freedom of the Press Foundation contains one particular factoid that sums up the situation here in America in a shocking way: “In just one week, from May 29 — June 4, more reporters were arrested in the U.S. than in the previous three years combined.”

The other report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) lays much of the blame at the foot of one person: “President Donald Trump has inexhaustibly denigrated the press and cozied up to dictators (and that) has perpetuated the crisis.”

The CPJ report says Trump’s continuous attacks on the news media as “fake news” has resonated with dictators around the world and provided them the excuse to further attack reporters. A total of 34 reporters have been arrested for spreading “false news.” Last year 31 were arrested on that bogus charge.

The other “excuse” was the Covid/ Coronavirus crisis. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports that the number of arrests quadrupled from March of 2020, when the crisis began to get attention, to May of 2020 when it reached its first peak. According to RSF: “State of exception laws and emergency measures adopted in much of the world to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic visibly contributed to a ‘news and information lockdown’ and resulted in journalists being arrested and sometimes jailed.”

The worst countries in terms of attacks on journalists, according to both RSF and CPJ, are China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. To that, RSF would add Vietnam and Syria while CPJ would add Turkey. To all that, one might add the United States of America. Here’s some factoids that would justify that charge:

— 387 journalists were either arrested or detained around the world, according to RSF.

— 120 journalists were either arrested or detained in the United States, according to the Press Freedom Tracker.

Nearly a third as many reporters were arrested or detained in the United States as were arrested or detained in the whole of the rest of the world’s dictatorships and oligarchies. While some of those countries used the Covid ‘excuse,’ in America the excuses were centered on the various protests with reporters being charged with violating curfew orders, failing to distance, disturbing the peace and resisting or obstructing police.

(It should be noted that despite the many attacks by police on reporters, not a single police officer has been charged.)

There appears to be little doubt that the over-reaction of some of the police was encouraged tacitly but implicitly by Donald Trump. However, to keep all this in perspective, it should be made clear that while the situation for journalists in America has clearly gotten worse during the Trump presidency, the situation in many parts of the world is far, far worse.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported 274 journalists were in jails around the world. In many instances, the journalists have not been heard from for months and even years. They have been held incommunicado, with family and friends uncertain about their fate. The unfortunate distinction of longest-held journalist goes to Swedish reporter Dawit Isaak who has been held in prison in Eritrea since 2001. His family has not hear from him since 2005.

In addition three journalists have died from Covid-19 while in jail. And four journalists have, as RSF put it, simply — “gone missing.”