Trump is undermining the fight for free media

KELVIN JAKACHIRA Recently in the USA

Any mention of Donald Trump’s name immediately evokes conflicting emotions in the United States where he is revered by his admirers and detested by his foes in equal measure.

Trump stormed onto the world stage after beating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US Presidential election, which the former Secretary of State was widely favoured to win.

He immediately captured the world’s attention with his bizarre and controversial leadership style – frequently taking the country and the world by surprise by making abrupt announcements of key decisions on his Twitter handle.

Bewildered Americans began following him on the various media platforms, including his Twitter handle. Now, as many as 55,8 million people are following Trump on his micro blogging platform while many more now follow him on the news more regularly.

Yet, despite the controversy surrounding Trump, his admirers praise him as a robust and tough leader with the potential of restoring America’s waning global influence in the face of growing rivalry from China and Russia.

“We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda,” the former White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said last year in reference to Trump.

Not to be outdone, Tom Price, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services, weighed in: “I can’t thank you enough for the privileges you’ve given me, and the leadership that you’ve shown.”

Ironically, both men resigned under questionable circumstances. Notwithstanding the praise from former allies, detractors say Trump is a rabble-rousing incoherent politician who is promoting hate, fear, racism and other abhorrent behaviours in the US.

The Democratic Party (DP), which launched a successful “Flip the House” campaign in the run up to the mid-term elections two weeks ago, in which the DP seized control of the House of Representatives, has renewed efforts to impeach Trump and chuck him out of the White House.

“Need to Impeach”, a campaign launched last year by the billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, is set to begin airing next Tuesday, urging voters to put pressure on their newly elected representatives to back impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Trump has courted controversy in his two years in office with policies that have set him at loggerheads with allies both at home and abroad. But it is his fight against the media that has put him under a more intense microscope.

His encounters with journalists are usually punctuated by fiery exchanges. But it seems he is taking it in his stride, while occasionally spitefully refusing to answer questions from journalists he dislikes and often verbally attacking them.

He disparages any media outlet other than Fox News, describing the rest, especially CNN as dispensing “fake news”.

Last week Trump clashed with a CNN White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, after he attempted to ask the President a question about his rhetoric.

“You are a rude, terrible person,” an irate Trump said after Acosta attempted to ask a question about the caravan of Central American migrants making its way through Mexico. “You shouldn’t be working for CNN. You’re a very rude person. The way you treat [Press Secretary] Sarah Huckabee [Sanders] is horrible. The way you treat other people is horrible.”

Acosta’s White House pass was cancelled by Trump’s officials after this incident, but the CNN went to court and got a favourable court ruling reinstating Acosta’s pass. It is this kind of the Trump demeanour that has taken journalists across the world aback and raised questions if Washington will ever have the morale courage to raise its voice against governments that are hostile to a free press.

International journalists covering the midterm elections in Nevada and California, including this writer, raised concerns about Trump’s attacks on the media, saying Trump, as the leader of the world’s biggest democracy, should lead by example.

“If the US President is fighting journalists with such spirited energy, then what should we expect from our leaders in Africa who are already known not to tolerate a free media,” said one journalist from Africa.

Likewise, journalists working in the US say they no longer feel safe. “A lot of journalists feel like the attacks have to stop because they are making it not only difficult for us to do our job, they are also dangerous,” said Ramona Giwargis, a state government and politics reporter at the Las Vegas Review Journal in Nevada

“You know I have covered his [Trump] rallies …Make America Great Again. And after Trump says ‘those people at the back’, he points to you and says those people are enemies of the American people. Then almost all the supporters in the room turn around and start yelling at you and bullying you.

“But the part that is more concerning is when you are leaving the rally, going to your car, you don’t feel safe. I haven’t felt safe in those situations.”

Giwargis added: “People have been hurt at the end of rallies just because Trump has been fired up and so enthused… The supporters come up to where you are sitting, yelling at you, and yelling in your face. It just makes it difficult.

“I think it is important for us to keep reminding people that our job as journalists is protected by the American constitution. And we are just here just to tell the truth and hold those responsible accountable.”

Curiously, the Las Vegas Review Journal, the biggest daily newspaper in Nevada, is owned by the casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson, a prominent Republican activist.

Another journalist, Todd Harmonson, a senior editor at The Orange County Register, said under Trump’s presidency, the US has become more polarised.

“A lot of people see a fundamental shift in the way that America is viewing itself, the way American politics is working, the way the American government is working, and a lot of people in this country are saying, ‘well that’s an interesting thing but we are not necessarily for that,’” Harmonson told the Business Times in Los Angeles.

According to him, the US is more polarised now – politically, culturally, and in every way – than it has been since the American civil war (1861-1865).

“I can say that from phone calls, from conversations that you hear, conversations that I don’t hear, people have started talking about politics because it is always a fight. It is not a conversation anymore, it is always a fight,” Harmonson added.

“That is sobering, that is how I see it. I am an editor who oversees politics here, I don’t claim any expertise but that’s the feel on the ground. It’s a crazy time.”

Trump’s media war has cast a shadow over Washington’s sincerity to see press freedom flourishing across the globe.

Tabani Moyo, the Zimbabwe director of the Media Institute for Southern Africa, says media freedom and freedom of expression worldwide are under siege. “Even in countries that had for some time been used as benchmarks for the enjoyment of media freedom and freedom of expression, the tide is changing,” Moyo told the Business Times.

“Geo-political changes have since made it worse,” Moyo continued. “Look at what is happening in the USA, Brazil which recently voted for a right wing party, the bulk of the EU countries facing hung parliaments with right wingers gaining traction, the Saudi gruesome killings of journalists, the life time presidency in China, etc, these are all signs that the right to free expression and media freedom is being increasingly strained.

“In my view the American presidency is at its weakest ebb as seen from the policy options being pursued by the administration, including targeting the media and the hostility to free expression. In this regard we say #JournalismIsNotACrime #HandsOffTheMedia.”

Ironically, Washington is demanding, among other things, that Zimbabwe remove laws that inhibit the free flow of information before the US can repeal its sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act of 2018. Last month, the US Assistant Secretary of state for Africa, Tibor Nagy, called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remove the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act if Washington was to lift sanctions that are stalling Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.

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