This is the worst time for freedom of the press in recent history – not just in Cuba, Venezuela and other brutal dictatorships, but also in the United States and other Western Hemisphere democracies. And there are reasons to fear that attacks on the media may get worse.
That was my first conclusion when – just hours after bombs had been delivered to the CNN building in New York and several public figures who are critical of President Trump – I read the Oct. 22 annual report on freedom of the press by the Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA.)
The IAPA, a group of U.S. and Latin American newspaper publishers that has been defending freedom of the press for more than seven decades, has long been best known for its relentless and well-deserved criticism of the Cuban and Venezuelan dictatorships.
But this year, in addition to its reports about Cuba and Venezuela, the IAPA issued an unusually harsh report about the increasingly hostile climate for journalists in the United States.