“What Are They Afraid of?” - Blinken Calls Out Regimes That Engage in Media Crackdown

Washington’s top diplomat on Tuesday used the occasion of World Press Freedom Day to express his gratitude to journalists for providing the public with the truth, and to call out the regimes that engage in media crackdown, TURAN’s U.S. correspondent reports.

“…Governments, regimes that engage in these practices do not evidence a great deal of confidence in themselves. What are they afraid of? I think we know the answer: it’s the truth,“ Blinken told reporters at the State Department’s Foreign Press Centers, in his first appearance at the Centre in more than two years.

In particular, he called out Russia, China, the Taliban government in Afghanistan and other regimes for attacks on journalists and freedom of the press.

The free flow of information, ideas and opinions, including dissenting ones, is essential to inclusive and tolerant societies, Blinken said, adding that a vibrant independent press is a cornerstone for any healthy democracy.

“We meet a time when the exercise of freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, faces profound threats. Some of these are old; some are new,” he told reporters.

293 journalists were behind bars at the end of 2021. That’s a new annual record, per Blinken.

China continues to hold the highest number, imprisoning some 50 journalists, including eight from Hong Kong. Other governments use the threat of imprisonment and lawsuits to intimidate journalists.

For Blinken, when individual journalists are threatened, when they’re attacked, when they’re imprisoned, the chilling effects reach far beyond their targets: Some in the media start to self-censor.  Others flee. Some stop reporting altogether.

“And when repressive governments come after journalists, human rights defenders, labor leaders, others in civil society are usually not far behind,” he added..

“That was the message sent on April 7th, when an assailant attacked Russian editor and Nobel Prize winner Dmitry Muratov with red paint and acetone as he rode on a train outside of Moscow.”

The attack, which U.S. intelligence assessed was the work of Russian intelligence, left Dmitry with chemical burns in his eyes, and sent a clear message to others considering criticizing the Kremlin’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

“Governments are supplementing traditional forms of repression with new tactics aimed at undermining press freedom,” Blinken added.

More governments are taking steps to control access to information – and news in particular – on the internet, whether through shutdowns, slowdowns, or outright censorship. These restrictions make it harder for reporting from inside closed areas to get out, and news from the outside getting in.”

Asserting that technology is being used not only to block journalists but to watch them, Blinken said from 2020 to 2021, (the mobile phones of) more than 30 reporters, editors and other media employees in El Salvador were hacked using the spyware Pegasus, according to an independent investigation.

''Last year, the Biden administration placed the foreign company that produces Pegasus – the NSO Group – on the Entity List, forbidding it from receiving US exports, including technologies, and seriously affecting its operations,'' he said.

In an interaction with a group of foreign journalists, Blinken said the U.S. has a vital stake in promoting the right to freedom of expression, including a free press, at home and also around the world. The free flow of information, ideas and opinions, including dissenting ones, is essential to inclusive and tolerant societies, he added.

Addressing to the members of the media around the globe, Blinken said: We’re humbled by your courage. We’re in awe of your commitment to providing the public with the truth. We’re honored to be your partners in advancing the essential cause of press freedom – today and every day.”

The White House, in its turn, releases a statement by President Joe Biden Tuesday afternoon on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.

“We live in perilous times for press freedom. At least 11 journalists have been killed in Ukraine in recent weeks. Another 11 have been wounded by gunfire. Others have been kidnapped and assaulted, and at least one remains missing.” the statement reads.

In Russia, the Kremlin has tightened its vice-grip on civil society, including through passage of a “disinformation” law intended to silence those speaking the truth.

“Facing the choice of repression and censorship or the threat of retribution, Russian journalists, and other members of the media have made the difficult choice to flee their country,” Biden notes, adding that “this is the price” media workers and their families are paying to tell us the story of Putin’s unjust and brutal war in Ukraine.  “And it is the price paid around the world by journalists who have dedicated their lives to keep the world informed and share the truth.”

Journalists cover war, expose corruption, document environmental damage, lift up the marginalized, champion our communities, and hold the powerful to account. And for this, too often, they are killed, jailed, raped, threatened, and harassed.  Women journalists, long a minority in the newsroom, are disproportionately targeted, on- and offline, in these attacks.

“The free press is not the enemy of the people.  Quite the opposite, when driven by a quest to illuminate and educate, not inflame or entertain, the free press is the guardian of truth,” Biden noted.

“The work of free and independent media matters now more than ever,” the statement concludes.

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.