Those in power want more power

It is just another reminder of how good we have it in the West.

This week, a Russian court upheld a move last year by the country’s media regulator to shut down Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper known for investigations into political matters.

Never mind the excuses proffered by authorities, “it serves a bunch of people who want to leave the nation facing only propaganda,” said Dmitry Muratov, the paper’s editor who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his work.

It was only one of dozens of independent media in Russia shut down or censored following the invasion, but Novaya Gazeta was particularly prominent.

Since 2000, seven of its journalists have been murdered in connection with their investigations.

True, it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction in Canada, but it’s far worse in Russia.

Media around the world may deserve much of the criticism we get, but we don’t deserve most of it.

It is almost a given, for example, that the column you are now reading will be attacked on social media by people who do not even get as far as this paragraph. And while criticism can be healthy and is nothing new, the fusillade is often misguided and it’s getting dangerous.

Those who know history can better predict the future, and you don’t need to look back far to see that the kinds of attacks we have seen against the mainstream media in recent years will come back to bite us all.

It starts with assaults like those we’re hearing from certain politicians and even news agencies, it’s amplified and mimicked by many on social media, and the next thing you know government is banning under false pretences what legitimate news agencies remain.

This week, Florida governor and probable presidential candidate Ron DeSantis suggested the U.S. media have too much power, and it is time to curtail it. He is among many Republicans, including Donald Trump, who believe a historic U.S. ruling that helps protect journalists from defamation lawsuits by public figures should be revisited.

News organizations are under enough financial, social and political pressure as it is. Newsrooms are shrinking and newspapers are closing across the continent.

The challenges are complex: changing technologies, changing times, changing social mores, circumstances, economics, demographics …

Those in power know full well that journalists are often the only obstacle in their quest for more of it.