Dear FRONTLINE community,
In an op-ed marking World Press Freedom Day in The Hill today, I highlight a disturbing trend: Journalists, and by extension journalism, being driven into exile.
As I write in the piece, the U.N. this year issued a warning that “the number of journalists and media workers being ‘forced to flee abroad to escape political persecution and legal and other restrictions in their own country’ is rising. Reporters Without Borders has seen a ‘huge surge’ in requests for help from journalists forced to relocate to other countries after facing threats. And Freedom House has reported that exiled journalists are increasingly being targeted by the governments they fled.”
These are dangerous trends not just for journalists, but for the public as a whole. That’s because, as I explore in my op-ed, if there are no journalists — whether in war zones like Gaza, where nearly 100 journalists have been killed in recent months, or in countries sliding toward authoritarianism — we don’t have a record of the facts on the ground. And the absence of a journalistic record means that corruption, disinformation and other abuses of power can flourish unnoticed.
You can read the piece in full at The Hill. It goes into detail about a documentary premiering later this month on FRONTLINE that follows the crucial work of one journalist whose story fits into this trend: Roberto Deniz. With his colleagues at the Venezuelan news outlet Armando.info, Deniz helped to uncover a corruption scandal spanning from Venezuela to the U.S. and involving a shadowy figure named Alex Saab.
The documentary examines how Deniz and his colleagues were threatened and intimidated as they chased this story of corruption involving the Venezuelan government – and how, in order to continue his reporting on the story, Deniz made the difficult choice to flee his home country. He has not returned to Venezuela, where there’s a warrant out for his arrest, in more than half a decade.
The documentary on what Deniz uncovered, and what’s happened since, is called, appropriately, A Dangerous Assignment. You can watch the trailer right now.
This film is the latest installment in FRONTLINE’s work to chronicle the threat environment journalists today face, and the broad ramifications. Through in-depth documentaries as well as incisive conversations on our FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast, we’ve probed crackdowns on the press in Russia and the Philippines; how the global threat environment for journalists has intensified to include new and sophisticated challenges, like the powerful hacking tool, Pegasus; the challenges of reporting on the ground in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan; and the dangers facing journalists who cover right-wing extremism.
My hope is that this World Press Freedom Day becomes a moment to recognize and appreciate the courageous work of journalists across the world covering vitally important issues, and that we all pay attention to the price that journalists sometimes pay for doing that work. I also hope we will find inspiration in the fact that, as we’ve chronicled in our films and on The FRONTLINE Dispatch, so much of this vital work is continuing despite all the obstacles.
If you have the capacity, this World Press Freedom Day, I hope you will consider making a donation to support The FRONTLINE Dispatch. In doing so, you will help to shine a spotlight on our continuing coverage of the experiences of journalists working to hold power to account, often in the face of increasing threats.
We are thankful for your support, this World Press Freedom Day and always.
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Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer, FRONTLINE |
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