Press freedom has deteriorated throughout the world over the past years. Even in the Western countries, where media is regarded as the fourth pillar of state, media freedom is evidently being curtailed.
Despite being protected by the First Amendment to the constitution of the United States of America that safeguards the right to free press, news reporters in the US are not given their due protection. A self-proclaimed champion of press freedom, the United States ranked 45th in the World Press Freedom index 2023. It got demoted three places after being ranked 42nd last year. This means that the liberty of the media is at more risk.
The current decline in press freedom in the US can be traced back to the early days of Donald Trump of the Republican Party as president. From calling the press “enemy of the people” to mocking a disabled reporter on an election rally, his administration tenure is filled with examples where he was seen targeting the press. Any critical analysis of the Republican policies was termed as “fake news” by him. Under the Republican administration, in 2019, four journalists were killed in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette news outlet. Such events aided in fostering a culture of intimidation and harassment towards the reporters across the country.
Although Joe Biden of the Democrat Party was mostly anti-Trump in his election campaign, his performance regarding journalists’ safety is no less questionable. On the occasion of International Press Freedom Day, Biden spoke highly of the journalists’ protection and media freedom. He highlighted the importance of safety of journalists and “questioning authority”. But, reality suggests otherwise.
The Biden administration is adamant on trying the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He had exposed the war crimes of the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government could not catch him on journalistic grounds, so they decided to charge him with espionage. He could face a life sentence for his ‘crime’. Ironically, Biden had said that “journalism is not a crime”. It was not long ago that an Ohioan reporter was manhandled and illegally detained for doing his job in a press conference on the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials.
Regardless of the hostile factors faced by the journalists at home, the Democratic Party administration shows more concern over the press freedom abroad, and equally fails to address it. In its haste to withdraw the American troops from Afghanistan, the White House overlooked the government-sponsored journalists working there. As a result, more than 100 press crew members and their families were left behind.
Biden made a similar speech last year on the press day. A week afterwards, an American journalist was killed abroad. Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian-American reporter who died while doing her duty in Israel. It has been a year since the unfortunate incident but no tangible effort to seek accountability has been made yet. Critics say that the government is deliberately trying to keep the matter quiet and make it go away.
Since the First Amendment prohibits the authorities to restrict media, the governments find other means to do the trick. The politicians try to silence the press criticism by rendering it fake news. Donald Trump even used to threaten to revoke the licenses of certain broadcasters publicly. Such an attitude by successive administrations is constantly declining press freedom in the country.
Media is supposed to be allowed to use its freedom to criticize the government for its unpopular actions. As opposed to being the fourth pillar of the state, it is sometimes seen being merged with the first pillar, the legislature. That is, the media is sometimes used by power-aspiring politicians as a political tool. Media houses in the US have been alleged of siding with certain political parties in order to help them gain political popularity. There is a widespread belief in the US media that ‘Fox News is the Republican Party’ and that MSNBC leans towards the Democratic Party. According to the results of a Pew Research Center survey, 93% Republicans reported getting their news from Fox News and 95% Democrats from MSNBC.
A positive-sum game nexus among famous media magnates and top leaders of the US is not a secret anymore. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, directly took part in misinformation amid the US presidential elections of 2020. It is on record that he gave orders to the media house’s chief executive to call the election results in favor of Donald Trump. The network propagated lies about the electronic voting machine being against the Republican candidate. As a result, Fox News now has to pay a damage of nearly $800 million for defaming the voting machine manufacturing company.
Such negative populism has had adverse effects on smaller press agencies. Over the past two decades, most of the media coverage is given to the higher echelons of power. This has diminished the role of local media channels and newspapers. Since 2005, more than 600 outlets have been shut down. The past year alone, more than 350 news outlets have been closed. More than 30,000 workers have been laid off since 2006. Local media is struggling to survive due to a general shift of mainstream media towards populist bipartisan politics.
The prospects of press freedom in the US seem bleak. Media industry is facing challenges. Most journalists are worried about their future. According to a survey by Pew Research Center, six out of ten journalists, or 57%, expressed extreme concerns about potential restrictions on the press. Journalism is not a crime. It is a public service. Ensuring freedom of expression and press is in the best interest of any society, including the US. An effective mass communication system is considered the backbone of a democracy. Free media allows a smooth system of accountability which is important to uphold the democratic values.
In order to ensure this, the interpretation of the First Amendment requires revision. The governments must be disabled to take unwarranted crackdown on journalists. The judiciary needs to monitor the jurisdiction of the government and intervene when an abuse of power is committed. The civil society and the international organizations, such as Amnesty International, IFJ and ICFJ, must raise their voices in favor of the journalists being illegally prosecuted. Governments should be frequently reminded of their duty to provide safeguard to the fourth pillar of the state.
