Press Freedom

Don’t Like Reporting? Call it Terrorism

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Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff. 1/14/25

Headline:  “Russia labels news outlets ‘terrorist organizations’ for the first time”

“The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russian authorities to stop persecuting the regional news site Komi Daily and the independent media outlet Asians of Russia, which the Federal Security Service (FSB) added to its list of “terrorist organizations.” This marks the first time media publications have been labeled as such in Russia, according to news reports.

“Labeling Komi Daily and Asians of Russia terrorist organizations is a serious attack on press freedom and the public’s right to information about the culture and current affairs of Russia’s Komi Republic and Asian peoples of Russia. . .”

https://cpj.org/2025/01/russia-labels-news-outlets-terrorist-organizations-for-the-first-time/

 

Grieving for the Media

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Article in Common Dreams by David Helvarg, 1/13/25

Headline:  “Dying in Broad Daylight: Media Outlets That Self-Censor for Trump”

Subhead: “What we are witnessing is not simply right-wing ascendency in national politics but a long-term decline and corporate consolidation of American journalism.”

“Two billionaire publishers, the Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos and the LA Times Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked their editorial page editors from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election (a Washington Post editorial cartoonist than quit when her cartoon depicting Jeff Bezos, Son-Shiong and other billionaires abasing themselves in front of Trump was killed). If you believe the Washington Post’s slogan that ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’ their owner was the first to switch off the light.”

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/media-outlets-pandering-trump

Another Jailed Journalist

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Article in Committee to Project Journalists by Staff, 1/13/25

Headline:  “Tajik journalist Ahmad Ibrohim sentenced to 10 years in prison”

A court in Tajikistan’s southern city of Kulob on January 10 sentenced Ahmad Ibrohim, chief editor of the independent weekly newspaper Payk, to 10 years in prison on charges of bribery, extortion, and extremism.

The closed-door trial was held in the city’s pretrial detention center, with authorities reportedly classifying the case as secret.

“With Tajik authorities having all but obliterated the independent press over the past decade, the hefty sentence meted out to Ahmad Ibrohim shows the lengths they will go to stamp out critical reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator…”

https://cpj.org/2025/01/tajik-journalist-ahmad-ibrohim-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison/

Lies Win Over Actual Facts

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Article in the Washington Post by Dan Diamond, 1/13/25

Headline:  ” ‘I can’t go toe to toe with social media.’ Top U.S. health official reflects, regrets.”

Subhead:  “Xavier Becerra, who has led the Department of Health and Human Services, says federal agencies are outmatched in a world of “instantaneous information and disinformation.”

“. . .Sitting in his office at HHS headquarters, America’s top health official identified a culprit: a media climate that he says drowns out reliable information. False claims about vaccines run rampant online; government health experts at news conferences barely make a dent compared with influencers who have huge followings.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/01/12/xavier-becerra-hhs-secretary/

 

Get the Paddles!

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Article in NPR On the Media by Staff, 10/10/25

Headline:   “Public Broadcasting Is In Danger (Again)”

“NPR and PBS stations are bracing for war with the incoming Trump administration. On this week’s On the Media, the long history of efforts to save—and snuff out—public broadcasting. Plus, the role of public radio across the country, from keeping local governments in check to providing life-saving information during times of crisis. [01:00] Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger explore the history of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and break down the funding with Karen Everhart, managing editor of Current. [06:59] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband, which oversees the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, on his decades-long fight with Republican lawmakers to keep NPR and PBS alive.”

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/452538775/on-the-media

Cartoon Kowtowing

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Jon Alsop, 10/10/25

Headline:  “Moderating Content”

Subhead:  “What the genuflection of billionaires means for the press.”

“Before Christmas, Ann Telnaes, an editorial cartoonist at the Washington Post, submitted a drawing that depicted four billionaire media and tech executives and one mouse genuflecting before Donald Trump, shown standing on a garlanded dais. The cartoon, Telnaes wrote last weekend, was inspired by recent reports of “men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-Lago” to visit Trump in the wake of his election win in November.

“. . .Meta is not the news media, but its latest policy change will clearly have ramifications for our industry. (For starters, many newsroom fact-checking initiatives have received financial support from Meta, the withdrawal of which is unlikely to be good for their free speech. . .”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/bezos_zuckerberg_altman_soon-shiong_billionaires_media_telnaes.php

World Press Freedom Decreasing

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Singapore Law and Home Minister

Article in Committee to Protect Journalists by Staff, 1/10/25

Headline:  “Singapore ministers threaten legal action against media outlets, government demands ‘corrections’ “

“Singapore Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng and Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam should withdraw threats of legal action against media outlets over their public interest reporting, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.”

” ‘The threats of legal action by Singapore ministers against media outlets, as well as the government’s recent order to “correct” reporting, severely undermine press freedom in the country,’ said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. ”

https://cpj.org/2025/01/singapore-ministers-threaten-legal-action-against-media-outlets-government-demands-corrections/

 

META – No Friend to Journalism

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Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 1/9/25

Headline:  “Mark Zuckerberg takes Meta’s hostility toward journalism to new level”

“In a five-minute video, Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed his social media empire’s subjugation to the future Trump administration in a radical shift to “Musk-style” policies on its platforms. In his new Meta purged of fact-checkers, journalism is portrayed as the enemy of free speech. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by this dramatic surge in hostility toward the right to information.

“No more room for journalism. In a video posted on Facebook on January 7, Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his company’s new policy on political information and debate. The billionaire says Meta will “get rid of fact-checkers” – who have been accused of helping destroy online trust rather than repairing it. Instead, they will be replaced with a system derived from X’s “Community Notes,” leaving it to users to verify the reliability of information themselves.”

https://rsf.org/en/mark-zuckerberg-takes-meta-s-hostility-toward-journalism-new-level

Clawing Back Net Neutrality

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Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Mathew Ingram, 1/9/25

Headline:  “Net Neutrality Is Dead (Again). Journalism Could Suffer.”

Subhead:  “What a new court ruling might mean for independent local news.”

“Net neutrality—or the idea that all digital information should flow through the internet unencumbered by restrictions and without internet companies showing favoritism toward some types and sources of content over others—sometimes feels like an immutable law of the modern world, like gravity or magnetic attraction. But in reality, it’s a political football that has been tossed back and forth for decades between open-internet advocates and free-market conservatives, who feel that neutrality rules are unnecessary and a brake on innovation and growth. Last week, the opponents of net neutrality won a significant victory when judges on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission didn’t have the right to impose such rules when it did so last year. Now critics say that the death of the rules could allow the internet to become distorted by partisan political and corporate interests. It could also make existing online even more difficult for news publishers and journalism in general.”

https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/net_neutrality_repeal_journalism.php

So Media – No Reporting Illegal Activities?

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Article in Reuters by Staff, 1/8/25

Headline:  “Israeli military tightens media rules over war crimes prosecution concern”

“The Israeli military placed new restrictions on media coverage of soldiers on active combat duty amid growing concern at the risk of legal action against reservists travelling abroad over allegations of involvement in war crimes in Gaza.

The move came after an Israeli reservist vacationing in Brazil left the country abruptly when a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to open an investigation following allegations from a pro-Palestinian group that he had committed war crimes while serving in Gaza.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-tightens-media-rules-over-war-crimes-prosecution-concern-2025-01-08/