Perils of the pursuit of truth
When authoritarian rulers consolidate their power, they follow the same playbook. Go after journalists, lock them up and erase their persistent presence. In the year now ending, this trend jumped upward to a record level.
The job of reporting the news — and more importantly, voicing criticism of the powerful — is more dangerous than ever. A survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists found 262 journalists in jail cells around the world, up from 259, the previous all-time high. This week Myanmar’s government locked up two Reuters reporters in a media crackdown over its genocidal expulsion of 660,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim group.
There’s a reported drop in journalist fatalities in 2017 with 65 dying, the lowest number in 14 years, according to Reporters Without Borders. But that statistic comes with an asterisk: reporters are fleeing battle zones in Yemen, Syria and Libya, where a press card offers little protection.
A total of 26 reporters died covering the news in such deadly places because of air strikes, gunfire or suicide bombings, as happened days ago in a cultural center and news agency in Afghanistan. But more than half of the deaths were targeted killings, essentially murders to muzzle reporting on entrenched interests. Mexico has become distinctly dangerous, with both drug cartels and government goons going after reporters. Nearly as many media workers were killed in that country as in Syria, where all-out civil war engulfs the nation.
The toll is far reaching. Reporters are directly at risk, but so is the public. One-note government news predominates if alternative voices are stilled. Reporters fearful of death or imprisonment can’t do their job. Jailings and killings reach well beyond the reporters themselves.
This country has a special role to play. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is rightly demanding the release of the reporters imprisoned in Myanmar. The State Department has also criticized harsh treatment of journalists elsewhere.
But the message is sometimes muted or mixed. President Trump has said little about jailings elsewhere, especially by the prime offenders. The president’s bombast and hostility aimed at “fake news” makes him no defender of an independent press. He’s derided major news organizations, a message carried out fully by his press-room surrogates. His latest low point was a re-tweet of an image showing a bloody splatter with the CNN logo on the bottom of his shoe.
His consistent hostility surely sends a reassuring signal to other world leaders abusing press rights. Trump feels your pain and probably won’t raise a fuss.
He welcomed Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House this year, praising him as a friend. The country has the unsavory title of the world’s worst jailer of journalists. The smallest offense in a blog or tweet can lead to charges of “anti-state” activities and a long stretch in a cell.
With China, Trump said nothing on human rights on a Beijing visit. The president famously pummeled to country for its economic policies in his run for the White House but continues to neglect its abysmal record on press freedom. His lack of interest comes at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping is deepening his hold on power with no successor in sight.
Egypt, third of the leading jailers of journalists, also is getting the hands-off treatment from the White House. After the country’s leader, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, met with Trump in April, Cairo officials unleashed a media crackdown in the name of anti-terrorism controls. The move robbed reporters of financial and travel rights in a clear bid to undercut their roles as independent voices.
These global spots may sound remote, culturally different or prone to religious and economic pressures not felt here. Yet press freedom is linked to human rights, the basic doctrines that shield people from government mistreatment. When autocrats run wild, it’s this country’s duty to speak up and rally opposition. Regrettably, that’s not happening with this American president.