World Press Freedom Day

Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index is out, and it’s not a pretty picture. Journalists are under threat in both democracies and dictatorships.
Turkey has arrested journalists en masse and silenced independent media. Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah is wasting away in prison. The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), a nongovernmental union, reported that violent attacks against journalists in Indonesia jumped nearly 86 percent to 78 incidents in 2016 from 42 the year before. Additionally, Indonesia steamrolls media freedom in the provinces of Papua and West Papua, a region with a small but persistent armed independence movement. Journalists are under threat in the Philippines. Azerbaijan’s government has long waged a vicious crackdown on dissenting voices. Russia and Belarus are also clamping down on free speech.