President Trump cheers press freedom -- and a press basher
Either Trump is tone-deaf to his role as an international leader, which he has demonstrated on numerous occasions, or he simply doesn't care as long as his punchlines work. Either way, his joking around with the idea of assaulting a news reporter who simply was doing his job sends an ugly message to the world.
The American president's words matter. President Trump's anti-media "fake news" and "enemy of the people" language already has been embraced by autocrats around the planet who define "fake news" pretty close to the way Trump does, as any news that he doesn't like.
Media bashing is an old game, of course, but its language changes. Prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, it was typical for despots to call dissenters "communists" or "Marxists." Afterward, the fashionable language changed to "terrorists," even when the alleged perpetrators were the same.
In June, for example, Egypt passed a "fake news" law criminalizing the spread of false information, making it even easier for the regime to jail purveyors of unwelcome news. Similar accusations in Vietnam reportedly led to a suspension and fines this summer for a local news website.
"It's a constant refrain," Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (I'm a board member), told Politico. "You hear all sorts of autocratic leaders from all over the world who are upset about media coverage, framing it as fake news."
Even Khashoggi, presumed dead, cannot rest in peace. Hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators have been mounting a smear campaign against the widely honored columnist to help shield Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist's alleged murder and its links to Saudi Arabian operatives.
Considering the sensitive international nature of this atrocity, the CPJ, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders have jointly called for Turkey to ask United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to launch a UN investigation into the "extrajudicial execution" of Khashoggi.
Around the globe, we have seen democracy under siege in recent times, including in Turkey, which currently leads CPJ's list of countries with the most journalists who are in jail for doing their jobs. Pushback is necessary. When press freedom is shackled, so is democracy.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
