Trump’s attacks a press-ing matter

Media chiefs around the world express concern over freedom of journalism

PETALING JAYA: International media heads have penned a letter to United States President Donald Trump, signalling their deep concern with the US administration’s persistent attacks on the press.

The letter was sent to the US administration on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers ( WAN-IFRA) and World Editors Forum (WEF).

It was signed by more than 40 media chiefs from across the globe, including Star Media Group Bhd group managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai, the first Malaysian to be elected into the Paris-based WEF.

The letter underlined how Trump’s actions, since coming to office, risk inspiring leaders in countries with weaker press freedom safeguards to repress or stifle essential freedoms.

“Combined with the exclusion of selected news outlets from a recent White House press briefing, we fear that the overall climate for media freedom currently being fostered by your presidency seriously jeopardises the on-going ability of a free press to hold power to account in the United States.

“The US is looked to as an inspiration for many around the world, particularly in terms of governance standards, the application of the law, and fundamental freedoms as upheld in the Constitution: it is therefore essential for the US to maintain its high regard for these rights and to do its utmost to guarantee their protection,” read the letter.

It explained that failure to do so risks weakening these values for US citizens (and included in this, media) at home, as well as inspiring authoritarian regimes abroad to weaken their commitment to democratic values.

The letter also firmly rejected Trump’s repeated accusation that the media is the “enemy of the American People”, and called on his administration to build a better professional relationship with the press.

“We feel strongly that the president of the world’s leading democracy should welcome and encourage the kind of rigorous self-criticism a free media upholds as a means of ensuring the highest attainable standards of governance,” it said.

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Frankfurt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India and Mexico, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers.

It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.