Press freedom day: Journalists are in the crosshairs like never before

Come to think of it, there’s probably a fair number of journalists themselves who are oblivious to the date and its significance which, it goes without saying, is both disappointing and unfortunate.

Even more reason then, albeit a few days after the event, to use my Thursday column here as a reminder of why World Press Freedom Day matters.

It was back in 1993 that the UN General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as a day intended to act “as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom”. For those of us in the job it’s also a time to pause and remember those colleagues who have lost their lives in the line of work.

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Rarely in recent years can there have been a more resonant moment to consider press freedom and its values than right now. As Russia tries to stifle reporting at home of its war on Ukraine by cracking down on independent media and detaining or killing journalists in the war zone itself, the value of a free working press has been thrown into sharp focus.

But it’s not just Russia’s war on Ukraine that has highlighted reporting challenges.

Last year a record number of journalists found themselves behind bars worldwide according to the international monitoring and campaigning organisation the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

With CPJ data for 2021 having now been logged, it shows that at least 24 journalists were killed because of their coverage in 2021. Eighteen others died in circumstances too murky to determine whether they were specific targets.

Given that this was the sixth consecutive year that the CPJ recorded a record number of incarcerations and deaths, it’s hard to refute the evidence that what we are seeing is a stark trend of growing intolerance to independent reporting.

At this year’s end as figures are tallied for 2022 and given the situation in Russia and Ukraine, it’s almost certain that these numbers will rise exponentially.

To date in Russia’s war on Ukraine the CPJ has confirmed that at least seven journalists have died while covering the conflict and is investigating whether at least five others were killed because of their work.

With every day that passes Russian president Vladimir Putin (above) crushes the last vestiges of independent reporting, but he is far from alone in such activities. From China and Myanmar to Egypt, Vietnam, and Belarus it’s been the same story as emboldened autocrats increasingly ignore due process and flout international norms to keep themselves in power.

Taking a leaf out of former US President Donald Trump’s playbook, despots, dictators, and political “strongmen” around the world think nothing of cracking down on what they see as the threat posed by a free press.

And before anyone thinks that all is rosy here in the likes of the UK, as CPJ president Jodie Ginsberg says, violence against journalists is “not only happening in authoritarian regimes”.

Here in Britain, for example, there’s been a sharp rise in coordinated, misogynist attacks against female journalists.

In short, intimidation, violence and censorship have become the order of the day in so many parts of the world where a free press tries to operate.

As a journalist, I’m all too aware of the fact that some people regard those of us in this profession as being about as worthy as something you would scrape off the sole of your shoe. I’ll admit too that sometimes such attitudes are a result of the media’s own making.

At its worst, journalism can be intrusive, lurid and vacuous or so beholden to political or commercial power that it becomes not so much unworthy as downright dangerous.

It goes without saying then that there is a need to keep our own profession’s house in order, while simultaneously doing all we can to keep the public informed without fear or favour.

“A free press? Yes, I’d love one,” I’ve often had people facetiously reply to me when discussing such issues.

Such scepticism and frustrations with the media’s shortcomings are understandable but throwing the journalism baby out with the bathwater is not the answer. Those who spend much of their time criticising the press might do well to pause for a moment and consider the implications of the question, what if no-one was watching? Russia again is a stark point in case right now.

What if no-one was there to report on those detained in Moscow or elsewhere for voicing opposition to the war? What if no-one was there to photograph or provide an eyewitness account of the atrocities committed by Russian forces at Bucha or the destruction of Mariupol? What if no-one spoke to the survivors of torture or forced incarceration in camps?

A woman and child sit on an evacuation bus fleeing the city of Mariupol

The very best of journalism exposes injustice and can lead to rectification of that injustice. Some might argue that this strays over into “activism.” But, given that justice is about fundamental fairness and the rejection of the exploitation of the less powerful by the more powerful, what is the contradiction?

That some governments do all they can to prevent reporters working tells us all we need to know about those regimes. What a sobering thought and wake-up call it is that five out of six of us now live a country where press freedom has declined over the past five years.

As I write, journalists are in the crosshairs like never before and I cannot but admire those colleagues worldwide who continue to work in their strife-torn home countries often under enormous threat.

World Press Freedom Day might have passed you by but please make a mental note in your diary for the coming years. Never has it been more important to recognise the threat that repression of a free press poses to all our freedoms.

In a chaotic world, bearing personal witness is more important than ever and to all those friends and colleagues who have already lost their lives in the line of work, I salute you.