After reading “The year of reporting dangerously” (John Diaz, Insight, Dec. 16), in which John Diaz cited so many examples of journalists being jailed or murdered in 2018—particularly in countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey—I wondered: Is the United States going to join or reject these repressive regimes in its treatment of the fourth estate in 2019?
It’s bad enough that our authoritarian-minded president has been regularly accusing the press of publishing “fake news” and calling it the “enemy of the people” since he took office. Now, as evidenced by the Capital Gazette murders earlier this year, his Make America Great Again minions are taking matters into their own hands and committing violent acts against journalists. Americans must defend the First Amendment guarantee of a free press in the coming year.
Journalists are not just (as Time magazine called them) “Guardians of the Truth,” they are also (in this country) “protectors of democracy.”
Julian Grant, Pacifica
