Press and Politics

Freedom of the Press — A Tempting Target of Tyrants.

With a solid and classifiable voice against the Chinese government, Apple Daily had the bullseye painted on its back.

Arriving at the Chinese embassy following a hearse, RSF representatives in Paris staged a mock funeral procession, delivering a coffin and funeral flowers with a placard inscribed “Apple Daily (1995–2021).” https://rsf.org/en/news/rsfs-funeral-protests-highlight-urgent-risk-death-press-freedom-china-following-closure-hong-kong

There is no better tool than the press to catechize the government. Bullies attack, censor, jail, and murder journalists because dissentious truth threatens their survival and loosens their grip on power. Cocooning your people from diverse viewpoints and giving them only your version of the truth (the State’s version) means you are fearful of your doings and want to conceal it desperately; hence, undermining people’s right to know. Deforming the truth by falsely accusing the press of distortions and chipping away at their freedom in this day and age can backfire. Smashing a pro-democracy press to pieces is not going to destroy the spirit of democracy. Rather it kindles the love for it.

Making newspapers look like sources of lies when all they are trying to do is hold the powerful responsible and expose their misconduct is cowardly. Mind you; we are talking only about those who are doing their job diligently and not ones who use ‘press freedom’ to justify saving their corporate interests.