I have been reading newspapers ever since I was first able to read them. Newspapers were part of my family’s daily life. I once wrote a letter to the editor and it was published when I was in elementary school. I started delivering for the Pittsburgh Press when I was 12 years old. My first job as a reporter was at a community newspaper in the Kingsley House on Larimer Avenue in East Liberty, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I think I was in 7th grade at the time. I wrote about what was happening in our neighborhood.
When I was in seminary, I was banned as persona non grata from multiple Catholic dioceses on the East Coast for writing columns. My reporting on voter registration in Mississippi resulted in me being taken into custody by the local sheriff in Greenville. I was bailed out by Hodding Carter III, a newspaper publisher and journalist who played an important role in the Carter administration.
These two incidents were the worst things that ever happened to me as a journalist, apart from being ignored. There is nothing like what journalists and journalism are facing today anywhere.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 15 journalists have been killed since Russia occupied Crimea during the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian war. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), more than 100 journalists have been victims of nepotism by Russian agents since Russia invaded mainland Ukraine in 2022.
As of March 31, 2024, 95 journalists and media workers have been confirmed dead in the Gaza-Israel war, CPJ reports. [ 90 Palestinian, 2 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese]; 16 journalists were reported injured. Four journalists were reported missing. 25 journalists reported being arrested.
These statistics do not include crimes against journalists’ families and friends aimed at intimidating them into silence.
These two wars are just two of 110 armed conflict situations in which journalists are at risk in the world today. Armed conflict is just one type of situation in which journalism is under siege.
Today, journalists must contend with the possibility of their communications being intercepted, monitored, and hacked. Governments, drug cartels, and corporations are leveraging sophisticated technology to surveil journalists, track their movements, and monitor their online activities. Such surveillance undermines journalists’ ability to protect their sources and conduct investigative reporting without fear of reprisal. Such surveillance exposes journalists to violence.
The digital age has given everyone access to information using their smartphones, making everyone a potential reporter as well as a consumer of news. The naive hope of this democratization of information was to provide direct, unfiltered, unmediated information to everyone. It is information free from the biases and self-interests of the “elite editors of the ruling class” and media moguls.
The promise of democratizing information has actually turned into a nightmare of mass disinformation on an industrial scale.
The digital age has facilitated the spread of misinformation and “fake news.” Social media platforms create a breeding ground for completely fabricated stories and gross manipulation of facts, undermining public trust in journalism through the media. Distinguishing fact from fiction is a constant challenge even for serious readers, and as a result, the very concept of truth is called into question.
In economics, Gresham’s law states that “bad money drives out good money.” In journalism, fake news kills real news.
At some point in 2023, 800 journalists were in prison, and in 2024, 550 journalists were behind bars. More than half of the detained journalists are in just five countries: China, Myanmar, Belarus, Vietnam, and Iran.
Female reporters and journalists interested in the human rights of women and sexual minorities are particularly targeted. Six of the eight longest sentences in 2023 were handed down to female journalists. In Iran, Elaheh Mohammadi and Niloufar Hamedi were sentenced to 12 and 13 years in prison. In Belarus, Marina Zolatava, Lyudmila Chekina and Valeria Katsiuchova were each sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison. In Burundi, Florian Ilangabiye is serving a 10-year sentence.
When I first arrived in Chicago in 1966, there were four daily newspapers and a number of excellent weekly and neighborhood newspapers serving a variety of constituencies in the Chicago area community. Chicago gained worldwide attention as a city of writers and investigative reporters.
Today, print journalism struggles to find an economically viable position among the myriad platforms available to both writers and readers. Many authors have migrated from traditional print media to his Substack, hoping to survive through reader subscriptions and other strategies.
The simple pleasure of reading a print newspaper while drinking your morning coffee is more than just nostalgia. It is a way of reflecting on various things that are momentary to me and my fellow citizens.
Still, 44% of Americans have a negative view of journalists and reporters, according to Pew Research.
First it destroys trust, then it despises, then it kills.
The murder of journalists is part of the very war against truth.
April 2024 © nicholas.patricca@gmail.com
Nick Patricca is a professor emeritus at Loyola University Chicago. He is a member of his PEN International San Miguel Mexico Center.
