Some nations’ crackdowns on media seen as threat

WARSAW— Two Turkish journalists face possible life sentences on charges they sent “subliminal messages” on television encouraging a government coup. In Hungary, oligarchs loyal to the prime minister have gained control of much of the media after the leading independent newspaper was shut down. And in Poland, a reporter is being threatened with a military trial for writing a book critical of the defense minister.

These are trying and dangerous times for the media in countries that until recently had begun embracing democratic norms of free expression. News organizations are under attack in dramatic ways, as elected governments turn public outlets into their mouthpieces and try to silence critical voices.

Michael Abramowitz, president of democracy watchdog Freedom House, said whether governments imprison journalists or flood the public sphere with misinformation, their goal is the same — “to ensure that negative coverage about the regime is marginalized and positive coverage dominates, especially for the plurality of citizens whose support you need to continue to rule.”

In undermining free expression, some of these governments have portrayed the press not as a pillar of a democratic society but as a threat to it.

It’s an issue of growing interest in the U.S., where President Trump condemns unfavorable coverage as “fake news” and brands journalists “enemies of the people.”

Lata Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Center at the Newseum Institute in Washington, said the threat in the U.S. is not that First Amendment press protections will be directly overturned, but that the administration’s continued attacks could sow so much distrust that attempts to undermine the media will become accepted. She cited Trump’s suggestion earlier this year that the government could challenge NBC’s broadcast license, after he was angered by a national security story.

“I think some of what Trump says is just bluster,” Nott said. “But there are some times where it becomes a tangible threat, and that’s what I worry about.”

In theory, Turkey, Hungary and Poland also guarantee freedom of speech and of the press. The principles were enshrined in the Polish and Hungarian constitutions following the collapse of communism in 1989, and in Turkey’s constitution decades earlier.