Journalism and Democracy: A Health Check
Gary Knight
"…and then they came for the journalists, and we don't know what happened next."
Last month, we marked World Press Freedom Day. Unless you live in Scandinavia, Ireland, or the Netherlands, this is not a day of celebration. Indeed, social media posts by my colleagues indicate that this may be a time of mourning, despair, and remembrance.
Irrespective of our political choices, we must remind ourselves that the health of our press is a good indication of the health of our shared societies. Protecting and advocating for a free press is not a political act; it's an apolitical existentialist issue.
Journalists, like tax collectors, aren't at the top of everyone's list of favorite professions, but like the tax collector, without them, our societies do not function as they should. One of the many differences between journalists and tax collectors is that the latter are rarely killed, kidnapped, and imprisoned for doing their jobs properly.
Journalism is the public watchdog, holding civic, religious, military, and corporate leaders accountable and monitoring those in political power to ensure that they carry out voters' wishes and don't abuse the power they are loaned through the ballot box. That's why governments that fear oversight are fearful of journalism, and oppress it. Few would argue that a healthy democracy can survive without healthy journalism. Anyone reading this newsletter knows that journalism has been challenged by market forces for decades and that an unviable economic environment can lead to compromised journalism. The worst of the media is politically biased, especially the press that is owned by politicians and wealthy business people who want to manipulate public opinion and public policy for their financial gain, but it is easy to identify and avoid. Today, a far greater threat than a changing market or a few rotten press barons comes from our democracies; what does that say about the health of our societies, and how should we respond?
Reporters Sans Frontieres, a French non-profit engaged in media advocacy, recently published their 2025 Press Freedom Index, an annual analysis and health check of global press freedom.
Not surprisingly, the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist is Palestine. Palestinian journalists have always struggled to work in spaces controlled by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli government and have been victims of abuse and violence by all three entities for decades. Still, the situation now is worse than it has ever been. Foreign Policy Magazine reports:
The war in Gaza that began after the Hamas-led October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel has killed more journalists than the U.S. Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined, according to a new report from Brown University's Costs of War project.
The Brown Report is a devastating read. It should not be difficult to demand accountability for the killing of Palestinian journalists, any more than the killing of journalists in any other country, but it is increasingly seen as problematic to do so. This paragraph in our newsletter is uncomfortable for many with whom we share common values. Palestine is ranked 163/180, and Israel is ranked 112/180 in the RSF World Press Freedom Index of 2025.
In India, which used to be described in the West as a beacon of democracy in an increasingly autocratic world, there is a relentless and ruthless persecution of journalists, particularly in Kashmir. The Indian government recently banned a BBC documentary on Narendra Modi and then raided the BBC offices. India has highly concentrated, politicized media ownership, and journalists are subject to arbitrary detention, violence, murder, harassment, and online violence. India ranks 151/180 on RSF's index.
In a blow to press freedom in the U.S.A., the Justice Department recently announced its decision to rescind guidelines that protected against the seizure of journalists' phone records and other reporting material. President Trump has repeatedly pledged to jail reporters who don't identify confidential sources on stories he considered to have national security implications and has joked that the prospect of prison rape would make journalists reveal their sources. The US government has defunded the US Agency for Global Media, a move that Chinese and Russian state media have praised, with a Russian broadcaster calling the cuts a "holiday" for Russian state media outlets. The Committee to Protect Journalists recently published a safety advisory and checklist for journalists traveling to the USA, an extraordinary tool usually reserved for the coverage of violent crises. The United States is currently ranked 57/180 in the Reporters Sans Frontiers Press Freedom Index.
The VII Foundation has deep roots in training colleagues in the Majority World. For many of our alumni, online harassment, intimidation, threats, and physical attacks, as well as criminal prosecutions and arbitrary arrests are widespread. RSF reports that in 42 countries — harboring over half of the world's population — the situation for journalists is classified as "very serious." In these countries, "press freedom is entirely absent and practicing journalism is particularly dangerous". We have a photographer in Myanmar who uses the nom de plume 'Anonymous' for fear of being 'disappeared'; recently, one of our students in South Asia had his home destroyed by government forces, destroying everything he owns, including his hard drives, archive, and some camera equipment. He asked us not to name him or even his country for fear of reprisals. In many of these 42 countries, vital support for independent journalists disappeared when U.S. institutions like USAID and the United States Institute for Peace were defunded by the US administration.
If three prominent democracies are ranked 57th, 112th, and 151st for press freedom out of 180 countries, our democracies have a problem beyond their relationship with the press. The murder and incarceration of journalists, and the use of the courts and instruments of state to suffocate the free flow of information through the press and compromise the accountability that allows, which is so important to free societies, is something every waking human should be fearful of.
There is, however, much to be hopeful about. At The VII Foundation, through the actions and words of the young people we train and mentor, we see resilience and courage every day. Our trainees and alumni are reporting from Congo, Rwanda, Myanmar, Kashmir, Ukraine, Palestine, Iran, India, Mexico, and every continent (except the Antarctic). Some of their colleagues and friends have disappeared, some have had their houses destroyed, and their cameras confiscated, and many of them struggle to survive, but they keep doing journalism at the highest level. They publish in leading media, win prizes, keep us informed, and hold the powerful accountable across the political spectrum despite the challenges they face every day. We must stand and fight with them, however daunting that may sometimes feel.
Before another year passes and we look over our shoulders at the violence against journalists that is sure to come in 2025, I urge you to be vocal and advocate for a free press now. Consider subscribing to thoughtful media, using your social media channels, engaging in peaceful and respectful protest, writing to your political representatives about state overreach, and joining The VII Foundation in supporting the training of young journalists who keep the information flowing.
Gary Knight is the Executive Director and co-founder of The VII Foundation. He was a photojournalist between 1988 and 2017 and a former Newsweek Magazine photographer who covered the wars in Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, amongst others. Twice chair of the World Press Photo Award, and President of the Prix Bayeux Correspondents de Guerre, Gary was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2009 and a Logan Non-Fiction Fellow at the Carey Institute in 2017. Gary founded and ran the Program for Narrative and Documentary Practice at Tufts University between 2011 and 2018.