{"id":5908,"date":"2022-01-29T13:51:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T18:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/?p=5908"},"modified":"2022-02-08T10:43:26","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T15:43:26","slug":"hunter-journalism-professor-speaks-out-on-the-erosion-of-press-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/2022\/01\/29\/hunter-journalism-professor-speaks-out-on-the-erosion-of-press-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Journalism Professor Speaks Out on the Erosion of Press Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Professor<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Sissel McCarthy sounded the alarm about the erosion of press freedom around the world in her keynote speech at the Association of Foreign Correspondents USA 2021 Awards Ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy explained that press freedom is under attack by a thousand cuts and that the impact is already evident with the World Press Freedom Index falling—and not just in countries known for censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis deterioration is particularly alarming because attacks on press freedom are often a precursor to assaults on other democratic institutions and even democracy writ large,\u201d said McCarthy, citing the Swedish Institute V-Dem\u2019s finding that the United States is now one of the 25 countries in a democratic decline thanks, in part, to repeated attacks on the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy praised the Norwegian Nobel Committee for awarding this year\u2019s Nobel Peace Prize jointly to Philippine journalist Maria Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitri Muratov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muratov is the editor-in-chief of the Russian paper Novaya Gazeta, while Ressa is the founder of online news site, Rappler, which is leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCarthy explained that in this digital age, social media platforms are the modern-day printing press\u2014with one big difference: Information can be shared instantly and to a global audience without a filter or fact-checking. \u201cHere\u2019s the problem: Research confirms that misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories are all more engaging than real news,\u201d said McCarthy, adding that it\u2019s no surprise Facebook and other platforms amplify this clickbait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are no easy answers, McCarthy said the public must fight for access to fact-based information and that journalists must lead this battle. \u201cPeople need to be educated about the value of a free press and then remind leaders around the world to respect laws that safeguard press freedom,\u201d said McCarthy. \u201cNo country can take their press freedom for granted anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can watch Prof. McCarthy\u2019s speech at https:\/\/youtu.be\/EmG-lSPpXfg<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Sissel McCarthy sounded the alarm about the erosion of press freedom around the world in her keynote speech at the Association of Foreign Correspondents USA 2021 Awards Ceremony. McCarthy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5909,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-news","category-homepage_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5908"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5975,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5908\/revisions\/5975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fm.hunter.cuny.edu\/journalism\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}