International Journalists: Trump is Emboldening Dictators with Attacks on Free Press

“The West Actually Used to Inspire Us”

International journalists warned United States editors this month that Donald Trump’s hostility toward the free press is emboldening dictators and autocratic leaders across the globe.

The annual American Society of News Editors-Associated Press Managing Editors (ASNE-APME) conference, designed to promote “fair, principled journalism” while defending and protecting the First Amendment, was held in Washington D.C. in mid-October.

The conference featured “How the world sees US: Press freedom in the Trump era,” a panel given by visiting world editors from the International Press Institute. It was described as such:

Visiting world editors (Korea, Britain, Norway and Jordan) from the International Press Institute will comment on how the embattled American press is having a ripple effect in other countries. Tables have turned, and the world now sees the United States no longer has a leader in free press issues. Join this discussion with the world panelists and the audience, moderated by IPI Chair John Yearwood, former world editor of the Miami Herald; and Marty Steffens, IPI board member and a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

In an op-ed published last week, editor and publisher of The Anniston Star in Alabama, Bob Davis, elaborated on some of the details shared at the conference.

“A pair of international journalists delivered a stark message to U.S. editors earlier this month,” Davis wrote in an editorial. “President Donald Trump’s hostile words towards the news media give license to totalitarian leaders around the globe.”

He continued:

These tyrants have little incentive to respect a free press when the president of the United States rails against “fake news,” threatens the broadcast licenses of outlets that report facts that make him uncomfortable or proposes locking up journalists, said Jordanian journalist Daoud Kuttab and Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of Bangladesh’s largest English-language newspaper, during the recent ASNE-APME News Leadership Conference in Washington. 

“There’s nobody in the countries around the world following Washington more than dictators and autocratic leaders,” Kuttab, director of Jordan’s Community Media Network, said. “The moment they see that the issues of democracy are no longer of priority in the U.S., they feel they can … get away with a lot more than what they normally get away with.”

Anam agreed, “We’re all used to being attacked by governments from different parts of the world, but we’re not used to being attacked by the president of the United States. The West actually used to inspire us in other parts of the world. But that sense of moral support is on the decline.”

As NCRM has reported, Donald Trump frequently attacks the free press and the First Amendment.

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