On Edge: What US election could mean for journalists and global press freedom

Journalists report from the U.S. Capitol as pro-Trump protesters stormed the building on January 6, 2021, to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (Photo: Reuters/Ahmed Gaber)
Journalists report from the U.S. Capitol as pro-Trump protesters stormed the building on January 6, 2021, to contest the certification of the 2020 presidential election. (Photo: Reuters/Ahmed Gaber)

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.

Read the full report and press release
Cameroon ratchets up media censorship ahead of 2025 election
Cameroon's Équinoxe TV broadcast an empty television studio along with the word "censored" to protest the regulator's ban on its Sunday politics show.
Équinoxe TV broadcast an empty television studio to protest the ban on its show. (Screenshot: YouTube/Équinoxe TV)

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.

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Journalists Attacked

Myat Thu Tan

MURDERED

Myat Thu Tan, a contributor to the local news website Western News and correspondent for several independent Myanmar news outlets, was shot and killed on January 31, 2024, while in military custody in Mrauk-U in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.

He was arrested on September 22, 2022, and held in pre-trial detention under a broad provision of the penal code that criminalizes incitement and the dissemination of false news for critical posts he made on his Facebook page. Myat Thu Tan had not been tried or convicted at the time of his death.

The journalist’s body was found buried in a bomb shelter, with the bodies of six other political detainees, and showed signs of torture.

Myanmar’s military junta has cracked down on journalists and media outlets since seizing power in a February 2021 coup.

In at least 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers of journalists go free. CPJ is waging a global campaign against impunity.

journalists killed in 2024 (motive confirmed)
imprisoned in 2023
missing globally