Journalists Targeted?


Article in The Guardian by Jason Burke, 8/11/25

Headline: ” ‘I risked everything’: remembering six media workers killed by Israel in Gaza”

Subhead: “CJP says the period since 7 October 2023 has been the most deadly for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992”

“Journalists have been prominent among casualties since the war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s incursion into Israel in October 2023. . . ”

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent non-profit organisation based in the US that promotes press freedom worldwide, says at least 186 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza . . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/i-risked-everything-remembering-six-media-workers-killed-by-israel-in-gaza

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Article in Al Jazeera by Mat Hashed and Abdelhakim Abu Riash, 8/11/25

Headline:  “Anas and Mohammed, journalists slain by Israel, remembered as role models”

Subhead:  “Colleagues pay tribute to assassinated Gaza journalists, vowing to continue their work.”

“Late Sunday evening, Israel’s military targeted Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza correspondents Anas al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh and three others, killing them in a drone strike against their media tent at the gate of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/11/anas-and-mohammed-journalists-slain-by-israel-remembered-as-role-models

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Article in Mother Jones by Julianne Mcshane, 8/11/25

Headline: “Israel Has Killed Nearly 200 Palestinian Journalists in Gaza”

Subhead: “The latest killings were targeted attacks on reporters covering the war in Gaza, according to the news network that employed them.”

Read the article at:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/08/israel-gaza-palestinian-war-journalists-killed/

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Story in Democracy Now by Mohamed Moawad, 8/11/25

Headline:  “Silencing the Coverage”: Israel Assassinates 5 Al Jazeera Journalists in Targeted Strike in Gaza”

Read the story at:

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8/11/al_jazeera

Independent Media – Future U.S?


Article in Reporters without Borders by Parteger, 8/8/25

Headline:  “ ‘Almost all independent media were eradicated’ in Belarus: after detention and forced exile, journalist Ihar Karnei speaks out”

“Ihar Karnei, a Belarusian journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has talked to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) about his ordeal for the first time since the Belarusian authorities released him on 21 July and forced him into exile. His account illustrates the regime’s total control of the media five years after President Alexander Lukashenko’s rigged reelection in 2020 and the ensuing violent crackdown. RSF reiterates its call for the release of the 39 Belarusian journalists still held. . .”

Red the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/almost-all-independent-media-were-eradicated-belarus-after-detention-and-forced-exile-journalist

Constitution Not for All – Rt. Wing Media


Article in Media Matters by Toni Lonergan, 8/5/25

Headline:  “Right-wing media’s campaign against due process for immigrants”

Subhead:  “Figures on the right falsely claimed that migrants don’t — or shouldn’t — get constitutionally protected rights”

“The Constitution guarantees due process rights for everyone in the United States, regardless of citizenship status, but as part of their ongoing effort to defend President Donald Trump’s mass deportations, right-wing media have repeatedly and wrongly insisted that immigrants are excluded from this constitutional protection.

“Some right-wing media figures have alleged only ‘nut jobs’ believe undocumented immigrants deserve due process, and some have claimed that even legal immigrants ‘have no rights at all.’ Others on the right acknowledged that migrants have rights but cheered at the prospect of taking them away, lamenting that constitutionally enshrined rights like due process and habeas corpus were slowing down mass deportations. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/right-wing-medias-campaign-against-due-process-immigrants

Captive Media?


Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Joel Simon, 8/5/25

Headline  “Is the US Media Captured?”

Subhead:  “The phenomenon comes in many forms. Experts believe it’s already here.”

“Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, who was born in Romania and today is a leading scholar of democracy, first observed ‘media capture’ two decades ago in Eastern Europe. The press there was not facing active repression. But it was far from free. Governments, she realized, were exercising control through indirect means—collusion and corruption. Captured media, Mungiu-Pippidi wrote in a 2013 paper, ‘trade influence and manipulate rather than inform the public.’

“Other scholars of media capture have since examined the phenomenon in different parts of the world—Mexico, Kenya, Hungary—highlighting government strategies ranging from manipulation of advertising to economic and regulatory pressure to the exploitation of informal relationships with media owners.  . .”

“The US government-funded Center for Independent Media Assistance, part of the National Endowment for Democracy, produced a video in 2019 describing how government cronies buy up struggling media outlets and bring them to heel.  . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/paramount-la-times-media-capture.php

Media and Hands Off


Article in Common Dreams by Stan Cox, 8/4/25

Headline:  “As Gaza Starved, NPR Coverage Grew but Didn’t Get Any Better”

Subhead:  “As conditions worsen on the ground, some establishment media have indeed increased their quantity of coverage, but few are expressing the heightened sense of horror and urgency that’s needed at this juncture.”

“Before the third week of July, when mass-starvation alarms finally started sounding, only a tiny minority of Americans were focused on the crimes against humanity that Israel was committing in Gaza. Common Dreams readers had long known what was going on, of course, but most Americans who depend on establishment media, whether liberal or MAGA, for their news had little idea. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/npr-gaza-coverage

Lessons From Sudan


Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 8/4/25

Headline:  “Applebaum on Autocracy

Subhead:  “Anne Applebaum warns that Sudan’s descent into chaos whoushows what happens when institutions fail – and why a free press is essential to prevent America from following the same path”

“Anne Applebaum has spent decades chronicling the rise of authoritarianism and the collapse of democratic norms around the world. In her latest piece for The Atlantic, appearing on this week’s cover, she turned her attention to Sudan, where a brutal civil war has displaced millions of people. . .”

“In a conversation with Status, she explained why Sudan’s tragedy is a warning for the U.S. as it drifts further from the post-war role it has played in geopolitics, with Donald Trump in his second term. Applebaum also discussed the hollowing-out of independent media and why decisions like Paramount’s payout to Trump matter in the slide toward autocracy. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/anne-applebaum-autocracy-interview

Subsaharan VOA impact


Article in Reporters without Frontiers by Partager, 7/30/25

Headline:  “Sub-Saharan Africa: community radio programmes shut down, access to information in jeopardy after Voice of America suspension”

“Disrupted programming, journalists sacked from their jobs: the US government’s suspension of Voice of America (VOA), whose programmes were broadcast in all sub-Saharan African countries via over a thousand local partners, undermines access to reliable and diverse information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this major setback for the right to reliable information on the African continent, and urges the international community to find alternative solutions to remedy the situation.”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/sub-saharan-africa-community-radio-programmes-shut-down-access-information-jeopardy-after-voice

Exporting Anti-Journalism


Article in Reporters Without Borders by Staff, 7/28/25

Headline:  “Six months of Trump’s war on the press: importing and exporting authoritarian tendencies”

“Six months into US President Donald Trump’s second term, his administration has become increasingly hostile towards the press, both mimicking and inspiring authoritarian and quasi-authoritarian regimes around the world. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns of the dangers of a transnational anti-press movement that shares tactics across borders and has found in the American president one of its most powerful proponents yet.

“Donald Trump has grown into a key figure in a global anti-journalism political movement that has contributed to a recent decline in press freedom globally, and is currently on full display in the United States just six months into his second administration. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://rsf.org/en/six-months-trump-s-war-press-importing-and-exporting-authoritarian-tendencies

Foreign Journalists Scared


rticle in Poynter by Angela Fu, 7/14/25

Headline:  “Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump administration”

Subhead:  “Non-citizen journalists working in the U.S. report wiping their social media accounts, canceling travel plans and pulling bylines”

“In 2021, Venezuelan journalist Luz Mely Reyes moved to the United States because she didn’t want to be silenced. As an outspoken advocate for the freedom of expression, Reyes no longer felt safe in Venezuela, where reporters have been threatened, arrested and beaten.

“Now in the U.S., however, she finds that she must often silence herself.

“ ‘In my country (Venezuela), I never self-censored. Here, I have to avoid some topics because I feel that it’s dangerous for my status,’ said Reyes, who as a green card holder is a permanent legal resident of the U.S. but not a citizen. . .

Read the full story at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2025/foreign-journalists-in-the-u-s-are-self-censoring-to-protect-themselves-from-the-trump-administration/

Spreading the Right Word

Article in The Washington Post by Sarah Ellison, 7/9/25

Headline:  “Trump’s social media company strikes deal with friendly news outlet”

Subhead:  Truth+, a new streaming service attached to the Truth Social platform, will expand globally, featuring Trump-friendly Newsmax.

“The company that owns the social media platform Truth Social and counts President Donald Trump as its largest shareholder said Monday that it had reached a deal with Newsmax, which its founder has described as “supportive of the President and his policies,” to stream Newsmax content globally.

“The unprecedented deal links a company whose largest shareholder is the sitting president with a conservative media ally, in a deal that could benefit both parties financially. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/09/trump-truth-social-newsmax-streaming-deal/