Journalists are bracing for the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. A CPJ special report ahead of the November vote finds that the hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s presidency has continued to fester, with members of the press confronting challenges that could shape the global media environment for decades.
“It is concerning that in an increasingly polarized environment, threats to the media have become routine in the U.S.,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator and author of the report. “The scapegoating of journalists not only has consequences for them personally, but also poses grave risks to the public’s right to be informed, a core element of any democracy.”
Threats to journalists include police assaults, violence, and online harassment, with work-related attacks in the first nine of months of 2024 increasing by more than 50% compared to 2023. Media outlets are also facing a draining onslaught of lawsuits that could endanger reporters’ First Amendment rights and ability to protect confidential sources.
Outside the U.S., journalists told CPJ they fear that a second Trump term could again embolden foreign leaders to restrict their own media.
After a month of seeing an empty television studio with the word “censored” splashed across the screen, Cameroonians are finally able to watch Équinoxe TV’s flagship Sunday politics show again.
The privately owned station fell foul of Cameroon’s regulatory National Communication Council, which judged it to have harmed the reputations of two ministers in the government of 91-year-old President Paul Biya.
But the station’s difficulties are far from over. Two Équinoxe TV political journalists told CPJ that they had received death threats in connection with their work.
“Every day, when I leave my house, I know that the worst can happen,” said one.
Attacks on the press have escalated as Cameroon prepares for elections in 2025 that could see Biya — one of the world’s longest serving presidents — win another seven-year term.
We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.
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