Word: Journalism

 Julian Borger, The Guardian  - 

In my career, I have lost colleagues to wars in the Balkans, west Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, and I’ve seen the grave risks reporters take to bring us the news, but the most dangerous time to be a journalist in the modern era is right now. Over the course of 2024, 124 reporters and other media workers were killed, the worst toll since the Committee to Protect Journalists started keeping records three decades ago. About 70% of that total were killed by the Israeli military, and 82 of them were Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza...

And then there’s the US, where I was based for eight years until last July. This month I returned to Washington, and found it a changed city under the second Trump presidency. I was careful to edit what was visible on my phone before going through US immigration, and there was a prevailing climate of fear among journalist friends and colleagues, with some insisting on encrypted communication and uncharacteristic discretion. Those working for big media organisations are now in constant fear that their owners will fall into line and insist on self-censorship, and the firing of journalists viewed by the administration as troublemakers. ... Give a donation to the Guardian