The Fourth of July holiday is a time for honoring our nation’s foundational principles. One of those is freedom of the press, which is a growing concern in many countries around the world. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was recently shut down after police froze the company’s assets under China’s security law. Since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1, at least five local media outlets have had their licenses revoked and more than 80 journalists have been arrested. According to Reporters Without Borders annual World Press Freedom Index, journalism is completely or partially blocked in 73% of the 180 countries they evaluate. Despite “freedom of the press” being part of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the United States is not at the top of the list (kudos to Norway). The United States ranked 44 out of 180 in the latest index, which is classified as being “fairly good” as opposed to countries like China and North Korea which are classified as “grave.” The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker says half way through 2021 , 73 American journalists have been assaulted, 49 journalists have been arrested or detained, and 22 journalists have had their equipment damaged.
How do we measure freedom of the press? Information pipelines to journalists must be clear and unencumbered. The consequences of blocking information were made heartbreakingly clear during the pandemic. The leader of Egypt banned any pandemic information that didn’t come from their ministry of health and arrested people who reported numbers higher than the official numbers. According to Freedom on the Net 28 of 65 countries they evaluated blocked websites or forced users, social media platforms, or online outlets to delete information regarding COVID content. According to Freedom House, the U.S. response to the pandemic was compromised by politicized misinformation from then President Donald Trump and his administration as well as some state governments, especially in the first few months of the pandemic.
Another way is looking at freedom of the press is how reporters are treated. Disturbing stories have emerged recently about how the Trump administration’s Justice Department, under the guise of looking for leaks, secretly seized the phone records of reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN. Although it is encouraging that President Biden condemned the seizure as “simply wrong” and vowed not to allow the Justice Department to do so under his administration, it is worth noting that when President Biden served in the Obama administration in 2013, the Justice Department seized the records of AP journalists.
The press also needs regular access to officials so they can ask questions. While standardized White House press briefings are happening once again and are far less contentious than those held during the Trump administration, President Biden has only held one full press briefing of his own since taking office and gives very few one-on-one interviews. More often he answers quick questions journalists shout at him in settings where he can say a few words and walk away. POLITICO compared the strategy to the Hippocratic oath for doctors – do no harm. That may benefit the President politically, but the American people need to hear directly from their leader, not just designated surrogates and cabinet members, about the important issues and policies that affect their lives.
Freedom of the press is of such vital importance that the press is historically referred to as the “Fourth Estate” – ranking it alongside the three branches of the U.S. government. Journalists are the people’s watchdog. A free press ensures that citizens have a credible record of governmental activity, so politicians can be held accountable for their actions and voters can make informed decisions at the ballot box. If U.S. governmental leaders were able to intimidate journalists by jailing them or shut down outlets that are critical of them, as is done in other countries, we would be unaware of corruption in the government and blind to health information that could be the difference between life and death. We would be unable to trust whether the government is telling the truth and acting in our best interest or manipulating information to keep themselves in power.
The collective trust people have in the information they get from news outlets is a crucial barometer to measure the value of the press to our democracy. This too seems to be eroding. Years during which former President Trump accused the press of being “fake news” have encouraged some consumers to question or disbelieve information they don’t agree with. The emergence of outlets including FOX News and MSNBC with a decided political point of view are allowing people to choose sources that reflect their views and ignore alternate views that could possibly change their minds. The Edelman Trust Barometer online survey of 33,000 people in 28 countries last fall revealed some disturbing trends – 59% think journalists are trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or exaggerations, 59% believe news organizations are more concerned with supporting a political party or ideal than informing the public and 60% agree with the statement “news organizations are not doing a good job at being objective and nonpartisan.”
How do we restore trust? Being a critical news consumer who gets news from fact-based media organizations rather than from opinion-based outlets is a start. We can hold media to higher standards by reading and supporting media watchdog and fact checking sites like Reporters Without Borders, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and FactCheck.org. Freedom House listed several other ideas including demanding that U.S. politicians quickly condemn violent acts against journalists (such as the murder of Jamal Khashoggi) and calling for the punishment of those responsible, as well as consistently affirming the importance of the press as being vital to democracy, and not lashing out at journalists for asking tough questions. Visit www.protectpressfreedom.org for more information about the critical importance of the First Amendment, what it has meant to democracy throughout America’s 225-year history, and what we can all do now to honor and protect it.
Freedom of the press is worth fighting for and something to which we can all be committed. Food for thought on this Independence Day.
