Silencing the Messenger: Global Threats to Press Freedom

Freedom of the press is under attack around the globe, but for journalists in Latin America in particular, reporting has become a matter of life and death. Populist leaders in the region have consolidated power and clamped down on press freedom, making the area the deadliest in the world for reporters. With anti-journalist sentiment on the rise, can a free and fair press prevail in an increasingly polarized world?

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Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Director, Podcasting
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Molly McAnany - Associate Podcast Producer

Episode Guests
  • Carin Zissis
  • Jan-Albert Hootsen
    Mexico Representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists
  • Neil Brandvold
    Documentary Filmmaker and Photojournalist

Show Notes

Last year was deadly for journalists around the world. Even as the Russian invasion of Ukraine sparked the largest land war in Europe since World War II, it was Latin America, where there are currently no wars, that was the deadliest region for journalists. 

 

This violence against the world’s reporters comes amid growing anti-journalist sentiment and a consolidation of power by populist leaders. Killings of journalists increased 50 percent last year; more journalists’ deaths were recorded in 2022 than at any point in the past five years. About half of those killings took place in Latin America, where leaders such as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have cracked down on press freedom. Meanwhile, the rise of spyware has made it easier for governments to track journalists and their sources. In this episode, journalists in the region explain how their jobs have gotten harder—and why healthy democracies need press freedom.

 

 

 

 

From CFR

 

Diana Roy, “Why Has Gang Violence Spiked in El Salvador?” 

 

Kali Robinson, “How Israel’s Pegasus Spyware Stoked the Surveillance Debate

 

Shannon K. O’Neil, “Mexico’s Democracy Is Crumbling Under AMLO

 

 

From Our Guests

 

Carin Zissis, “LatAm in Focus: The Strange Case of El Salvador’s Plummeting Homicide Rate,” AS/COA Online

 

Jan-Albert Hootsen, “For Mexican Journalists, President López Obrador’s Pledge to Curb Spyware Rings Hollow,” Committee to Protect Journalists


 

Read More

 

Jennifer Dunham, “Deadly Year for Journalists as Killings Rose Sharply in 2022,” Committee to Protect Journalists

 

Sam Cutler and David Pegg, “What Is Pegasus Spyware and How Does it Hack Phones?The Guardian

 

Sarah Kinosian, “Trolls, Propaganda and Fear Stoke Bukele’s Media Machine in El Salvador,” Reuters
 

 

Watch and Listen

 

Mexico’s Democratic Backsliding, With Shannon K. O’Neil,” The President's Inbox

 

Neil Brandvold, Unforgivable, VICE

 

Who’s Killing Mexico’s Journalists?The Take, Al Jazeera

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