From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:
The world was shocked last week by the murder of a Washington Post journalist by the Saudi Arabian government — in the most obvious way (in their own embassy). But they shouldn’t have been shocked. While the murder may have been the most obvious one by a government, it is far from the only one.
Journalists across the world are being attacked (and many murdered), and those attacks are growing in number. Even in the United States (supposed bastion of democracy), journalists are being threatened with death — because Donald Trump has labeled them an “enemy of the people”. I have to believe Trump’s attack on journalists have encouraged less democratic governments to go after journalists they don’t like.
This is a horrible trend, because democracy cannot exist in any country without a free and unfettered press. When journalists are threatened, attacked, imprisoned, and killed, it is nothing less than an attack on democracy itself.