US press freedom under unprecedented pressure, report finds

As a tight presidential election looms in the United States, journalist safety in the home of the First Amendment is no longer guaranteed, according to a report published Tuesday.
Journalists in the United States are facing a slew of threats, including attacks by police, online harassment, violence and legal challenges, according to the report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The report primarily analyzes developments since 2020.
“There was a hope at the beginning of the Biden administration that things would get better for journalists. And what we’ve seen, actually, is that things haven’t really gotten better. They’ve stayed the same or worsened in some situations,” Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator, told VOA.
The numbers paint a concerning picture. As of September 2024, assaults on journalists in the United States in relation to their work have risen by more than 50% compared to last year — from 45 to 68 assaults — according to data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
‘Enemies of the people’
Even though former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, the report points to his legacy as a driving factor behind the hostile environment continuing to face journalists around the country.
During Trump’s presidency, he regularly referred to journalists as “corrupt,” “dishonest” and “enemies of the people.” Those kinds of attacks took place — and continue to take place — within the context of record-low trust in the media in the United States, according to a 2023 Gallup poll.
“Donald Trump’s treatment of the media still matters because it’s very much still an issue,” said Jacobsen, who authored the report. “It’s a really effective political tactic for changing the narrative and undermining the credibility of the media.”
Trump’s administration also escalated prosecution of news sources, interfered in the business of media owners, and harassed journalists crossing U.S. borders, according to a 2020 CPJ report.
Trump’s office and presidential campaign did not immediately reply to VOA’s emails requesting comment for this story. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, also did not immediately reply to VOA’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, CPJ reached out to both the Trump and Kamala Harris campaigns, asking them to sign the organization’s pledge to affirm their support for press freedom. Trump’s campaign did not reply, and Harris’ campaign acknowledged receipt but did not sign the pledge.
Consequences continue
Trump hasn’t been in office for nearly four years, but his tenure in the White House continues to have consequences for journalists in the United States, according to Jacobsen.
“If Donald Trump’s anti-media rhetoric did not find resonance among the broader American public, then we wouldn’t even be talking about it,” Jacobsen said.
President Joe Biden’s administration has been markedly friendlier to the press, according to the report, but Jacobsen said that hasn’t translated to an improved media environment around the country.
A top threat facing journalists is violence, which has steadily increased against the media over the past decade in the United States, the report said.
Among the most prominent recent cases is the 2022 killing of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, who was found stabbed to death outside his home. Robert Telles, a former local Nevada official, was found guilty of murdering German in late August.
Although journalist killings are rare in the United States, they can have a chilling effect on the media community, according to Jacobsen. Reporters told CPJ that hostility toward journalists makes them feel less safe working in their home environments.
“The killing of journalists, especially local journalists where the reporters are working in the community, going to the same grocery stores as the people that they’re writing about, creates this sense that nowhere is safe,” Jacobsen said.
Incidents involving police are another issue for journalists.
In a recent case, Chicago police arrested three photojournalists while they covered a pro-Palestinian protest during the Democratic National Convention in August.
And four years ago, at least 459 journalists were assaulted while covering the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, including at least 273 cases in which police targeted journalists, according to the Tracker.
“The press serves as the public’s eyes and ears, and if the press is removed completely from the scene, the public’s blind to what’s happening on the ground,” Gabe Rottman, a senior attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in the CPJ report.
Physical threats against journalists are exacerbated by online harassment against them, according to the report. A 2022 survey by Pew Research Center found that one-third of journalists surveyed reported being harassed on social media in the previous year.
With the election just over a month away, Jacobsen said it’s also important to remember the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on the Capitol in Washington.
Journalists were among the targets during the riots, with at least 18 journalists assaulted that day, according to the Tracker. But there hasn’t been much accountability in those cases, according to Jacobsen, and large swaths of the American public still don’t agree on what happened that day.
Some journalists who were present during the insurrection say grappling with the subsequent trauma has been difficult, according to the report.
“I really do think that January 6th was a warning shot,” Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, a freelance photojournalist who was on assignment at the Capitol during the riots, said in the CPJ report. “It was a wake-up call to the fragility of our democracy and trust in institutions — like journalism, like the government — that’s been eroding for a very long time.”
Jacobsen said she’s worried about ramifications for the media landscape if the results of the presidential election are contested. Trump has previously said that Democrats will cheat in the election and suggested that any election in which he does not win is likely to be fraudulent.
“It’s really important for journalists across the country to prepare themselves for the worst-case scenario and hope for the best,” Jacobsen said.