The Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit organization founded in 1981, defends the rights of journalists around the world. Its executive director, Joel Simon, is stepping down at the end of the year, and he noted that conditions are getting worse. According to Mr. Simon, Governments are increasingly taking aggressive action toward journalists, and there are very few consequences. During the Trump administration , we saw a connection in governments appropriating “fake news” and using it to justify imprisoning journalists. We’ve also seen governments brazenly use violence.
Simon noted that police are often aggressive to journalists during demonstrations. When journalists get arrested at protests in the United States, those images echo around the world and they send a message to so many places that this is the way police behave even in democratic countries. And therefore, arresting journalists at protests in Moscow or covering protests in Myanmar, which we’re seeing now, is less shocking and generates less attention.
Last year 274 journalists were imprisoned. 22 journalists were murdered for doing their jobs. Seven have already been killed so far this year.
See Katie Robertson, “Head of Group That Aids Journalists to Step Down,” New York Times, (June 10, 2021), p. B5.
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