Sixteen prisoners were recently released from Russian prisons in the biggest exchange deal between Russia and the West since the Cold War, involving seven countries in total.
Among them are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, Russian-British political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Russian-American journalist from Radio Free Europe Alsu Kurmasheva.
“Now their brutal ordeal is over, and they’re free,” said President Joe Biden in a speech from the White House State Dining Room, flanked by family members of the released prisoners.
But while the “brutal ordeal” is over for those specific journalists, the ordeal is far from over for thousands of other journalists around the world — indeed, for the very profession of journalism. It faces several existential threats.
Some are of its own making — or at least partly so. For example, faith in newspapers and the news industry in general has plummeted, and outlets are scrambling to keep their checkbooks balanced by providing content digitally and covering it with ads. Of course, as you know if you’ve ever visited a newspaper’s website, that makes for a rough browsing experience.
But no matter what photo ops and publicity stunts Joe Biden might execute from the White House State Dining Room, the government is the biggest threat to journalists and journalism. Governments, of course, have always used their power to intimidate or coerce journalists into keeping quiet; it’s why the Founding Fathers made freedom of the press part of the First Amendment.
Learn more about the First Amendment:
But in the 21st century, Biden’s three predecessors have seemingly tried to outdo each other in the vilification and persecution of journalists, whistleblowers, and leakers:
– George W. Bush used the Espionage Act to devastating effect during his eight years as President.
– Barack Obama’s administration built on that precedent to prosecute “nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, compared with only three by all previous administrations combined. It has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists.” Obama’s administration famously went after Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. (Learn more about Snowden: They Are Watching You.)
– Compared to them, Donald Trump was mostly talk. But that talk was pointed; he Tweeted in 2019 that the press “are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
This is not a good trend (and with the crackdown on independent and social media during the Covid-19 Pandemic, as our own Ethan Yang uncovered, Biden’s administration has not been a friend to the press either).
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