“Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich just passed his 250th day in Russian prison, while Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange awaits extradition to the US after years of imprisonment in Great Britain. Meanwhile, Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon than anywhere else in the world in the last 30 years. At least 63 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in the previous two months, many of them undoubtedly deliberately targeted. These violent attacks on journalists and media organizations are no accident and have resulted from a failure of world governments to protect journalists and hold accountable those nations that have targeted the press. 

The US government is one of the most responsible parties for this degradation of press freedom and the direct assaults on journalists. A failure of the US military to hold accountable its forces for the killings of journalists in Afghanistan and Iraq, the decade-long persecution and prosecution of Julian Assange, and the unwillingness of the Trump and Biden administrations to hold accountable Saudi Arabia and Israel for the deaths of American journalists Jamal Khashoggi and Shireen Abu Akleh, have demonstrated a clear disregard for international and US law and signaled to the rest of the world an approval to do the same. 

The attacks on journalists and press freedom will likely worsen. The dangers of censorship through direct government action and partnerships with corporations have never been greater, especially in the US. Control of the public narrative, media messaging and propaganda have always been important for war and militarism to prosper; the US government this century, in particular, has excelled at such efforts.

With two of the most propagandized wars in world history killing tens of thousands in Ukraine and Palestine, tensions in the Indo-Pacific region driving talks of war, and the risk of a world war originating in Europe, the Middle East or Asia not being exaggerated, greater press freedom is what is required to find diplomatic solutions to bring about peace, stability and security. The killing, detaining and silencing of journalists is a tool used by governments worldwide, including the US and its allies, to push war and militarized foreign policies that otherwise would be exposed as immoral, illegal and counter-productive by a free press.”