Governments Reaching Beyond Borders To Target Journalists
Program Date: Jan. 26, 2024

Press freedom around the world remains in decline, as journalists have been increasingly targeted with physical violence, threats and intimidation, according to Freedom House, which regularly assesses the state of global democracy.

While overall global freedom has been deteriorating for 17 years, Adrian Shahbaz, vice president for research and analysis at the non-partisan group told the Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship class that “media all around the world are in a very precarious place.”

Thirty-three countries, including Russia, posted the “worst possible” scores for press freedom, up from 14 in 2005, according to a Freedom House analysis.

From Kyrgyzstan, where a court stripped a reporter of citizenship before deporting him to Russia, to Guatemala where authorities in 2022 arrested Jose Ruben Zamora, director of El Periodico which has been critical of the government, reporters increasingly have found themselves in the line of fire.

“It’s hard to overstate the consequences and how harsh the crackdown on journalism has been,” Shahbaz said.

In a striking example of the peril facing journalists internationally, Shahbaz said Freedom House has tracked 112 incidents of “physical transnational repression” in which governments have reached beyond their borders to threaten, intimidate and kill.

The 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey is among the most chilling. Last year, U.S. authorities also uncovered a plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist living in Brooklyn.

“When you look at some of the digital threats that journalists face once they leave their countries, that would be impossible for us to track just because there’s so many,” Shahbaz said.

Shahbaz said the analysts also are closely tracking developments in the U.S., where America’s overall freedom standing has been in decline.

“I think it predates President Trump, so it’s been across both Democratic and Republican administrations,” he said. “I would say, generally, where we’ve seen that decline is around unequal rights. I think that’s probably unsurprising. The other aspect is around the influence of money in politics, and the ways that creates, let’s say, less democratic outcomes…”

Access the full transcript here.

Adrian Shahbaz
Vice President, Research and Analysis, Freedom House
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Transcript
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Resources
Resources for ‘A Very Precarious Place’: Press Freedom In Decline Around The World

Media Freedom: A Downward Spiral,” Sarah Repucci, Freedom House, 2019

Press freedom is eroding around the world,” Dave Lawler, Axios, June 2019

Secretary Antony J. Blinken at Freedom House 2023 Annual Awards Ceremony,” U.S. Department of State, May 2023

Media freedom in dire state in record number of countries, report finds,” Oliver Holmes, The Guardian, May 2023

Most U.S. journalists are concerned about press freedoms,” Naomi Forman-Katz and Sarah Naseer, Pew Research Center, May 2023

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