The world is living through a democracy recession that has spread to countries once seen as inoculated against the threat of authoritarianism. There are many symptoms of this, including government corruption and weakening of fair elections, but one of the most dramatic is the attack on the free press as a fundamental pillar of a healthy democracy. Some media have contributed to a decline in trust by diluting the quality of their journalism and taking a partisan approach to reporting the news. But they now confront increasing violence, imprisonment, economic intimidation, and cyber campaigns spreading propaganda about journalists, all part of a bulging toolbox used to undermine the media. In some countries, the attacks come from the highest political ranks, where “press freedom predators,” as Reporters Without Borders has named them, now sit at the top of a lengthening list of governments. But the victim here is not just journalism―it’s democracy itself.
