How they see us: No longer a bastion of press freedom?
Horrified Australians watched as our own journalists were “duffed up” live on air by American police last week, said David Penberthy in the CourierMail (Australia). Channel 7 reporter Amelia Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were covering a peaceful protest outside the White House when the Trump administration—determined to make a “show of strength”—ordered the crowds cleared from Lafayette Square. U.S. Park Police officers surged forward, blasting tear gas and swinging batons at anyone in their way. One officer smacked Myers in the gut with a riot shield and then punched him in the face; another officer lunged at Brace with a nightstick. As they headed for safety, the two were hit by rubber bullets. Police “clearly knew they were journalists”—Myers “had a TV camera on his shoulder”—but attacked anyway. Some commentators have argued that the pair shouldn’t have been there. But they were simply doing their jobs, and the decision of a government “to use force against anyone is always a valid news story.”
The U.S. has long held itself up as a beacon of press freedom, said Robert Penfold in The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). But in recent weeks, the world has seen dozens of journalists there deliberately targeted by law enforcement. CNN’s Omar Jimenez was grabbed by police and arrested; photojournalist Linda Tirado lost an eye to a rubber bullet; a woman TV reporter in Louisville was hit repeatedly with pepper balls. This hostility toward the media is largely a result of President Trump’s hateful rhetoric. He routinely calls the press “the enemy of the people” and encourages his followers to not just ignore our reporting but also to despise us. Anyone who has covered a Trump rally “has experienced the pure hatred that is shouted at us by his Make America Great Again supporters.”
Where America goes, others follow, said Astrid Prange for DeutscheWelle .de (Germany). Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro, who idolizes Trump, is inciting “social division and violence by spreading fake news.” Major Brazilian media outlets no longer report from outside the presidential residence in Brasília because of threats of violence from Bolsonaro supporters. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson—a former journalist—has banned critical reporters from press conferences and lambasted the BBC. And of course, the attacks on the media in nondemocratic nations are even more egregious. “Every little tinpot [in Africa] is studying America’s new copybook,” said Zimbabwean activist Tendai Biti.
“Once a society starts normalizing attacks on journalism, it’s on a slippery slope to ruin,” said Neil Mackay in The Herald (Scotland). The press has become a target because the normal political process has broken down and the media has taken “on the role of an almost semi-official opposition.” It’s CNN, not the Democrats, that holds Trump to account in America. In Britain, “it took journalists to root out the truth about Brexit” from Johnson’s Conservatives. “A society at war with journalism is at war with itself.”