Report Puts Spotlight On Decline of Media Freedom in the US
America is an increasingly hostile environment for journalists, according to a new report.
An survey on journalists’ working conditions published by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCPF) identifies a number of flashpoints in 2020 that contributed to a difficult media environment, not least the police treatment of Black Lives Matter protests across the country.
These, said the authors, saw a “startling extent of police violence against journalists”. Harassment, violence, arrest and exposure to pepper spray were among the obstacles faced by journalists trying to report on events.
RCFP recorded 438 attacks, and 129 arrests in 2020 – more than 11 and 15 times the number for the previous year. The group said that law enforcement was responsible for 80 percent of attacks on journalists.
“It's the trickle-down effect of years of verbal attacks on the press,” Sarah Matthews, RCPF Senior Staff Attorney told Blueprint for Free Speech, pointing the finger especially at former president Donald Trump for calling reporters “enemies of the people.”
“It just ramped up every year as he tweeted more attacks on the press,” she said, turning not just his supporters against journalists and press freedom, but law enforcement too.
“The most dangerous place for a journalist has been at a protest … it used to be that journalists were not targeted, you had your press credential and the police respected that and protesters weren't attacking you and there was a sense of respect for the media,” she said.
Two Los Angeles Times journalists, Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Carolyn Cole were among those affected by police actions. While covering the protests in Minnesota, the two claim that state troopers trapped them against a wall and struck them with blunt projectiles, tear gas and chemical spray - despite them having identified themselves as media workers. Cole suffered a corneal abrasion and chemical burns on her eye and skin.
The journalists have now filed a case in court. In a separate case, Minnesota’s ACLU has filed a class-action suit claiming local enforcement has essentially put the media “under attack” by ignoring press credentials.
Andrew Noel, one of the attorneys representing Henessy-Fiske and Cole said they and other reporters were targeted by State Police. “It's beyond shocking to see how the First and Fourth Amendments were tossed aside by the State Troopers in this case…
“The militarization of police has also played a role. You are seeing police using equipment designed for combat … body armor and even flash grenades and rubber bullets. Having those tools readily available means they are used.”
BEATING THE MESSENGER
Spotlight, the film that won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Picture, memorably portrayed the Boston Globe investigative team that uncovered pedophile priests being protected by the powerful Catholic Church.
Ben Bradlee, Jr. who oversaw the team, told Blueprint how much the scene has changed in the 20 years since the story was revealed with old-school legwork and refusal to back down to powerful interests.
“I'm quite pessimistic because of the divided state of the country and our inability to even agree on what a fact is anymore. There is no Walter Cronkite anymore, no one trusted source of news. With 500 channels, the demise of newspapers, and the flourishing of social media, everyone does their own reality shopping,” he said.
“On another Spotlight today, the big national papers still do excellent investigative reporting, but for most of the smaller, regional papers who have been killed by the Internet and lost so many reporters, there is less and less of it, and that is troubling,” he said.
Josh Singer, co-writer of the Spotlight script, said they wanted to portray the value of what journalists do, feeling it was receding.
“The motive was to tell the story accurately while showing the power of the newsroom, something that's largely disappeared today. This story is important. Journalism is important, and there is a deeper message in the story,” he told Creative Screenwriting.
In Iowa, police used the charge of failure to disperse in arresting Des Moines Register journalist Andrea Sarhouri while she was covering a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, which troubled her newspaper and media organizations.
In March, she was acquitted but RCFP Executive Director Bruce Brown said that, “Law enforcement should never have arrested Andrea Sahouri in the first place simply for doing her job as a reporter, and the decision to move forward with her prosecution flies in the face of the First Amendment," further endangering reporters.
Matthews said, “We have historically been the bastion for press freedom, the home of the First Amendment the beacon for the rest of the world. We have played the role as a model for free press rights and this is really troubling because we're seeing real and serious attacks,” driven by rage and hate.
Katherine Jacobsen, US Researcher for The Committee to Protect Journalists, told Blueprint the organization is worried “about the ways that disinformation and fiery anti-media rhetoric that demonizes the press translates into safety concerns for journalists when they are reporting”.
“Distrust in the media, increased political polarization and an increasingly militarized police force have made the reporting environment more fraught and led to increased safety concerns for journalists in the USA,” she added.
What's equally troubling, she said, is that: “When law enforcement officials are not held to account for arresting or assaulting the press, this sends a message to the public that media freedom is not a priority. Police should be protecting and facilitating journalists’ important work, not arresting and attacking them”.