Apple Daily and Annapolis: Two Farewells to the Free Press

The newspapers have a lot in common As businesses both obviously are cratering Violence also has tragically marked their fates In Annapolis a gunman murdered five Capitol Gazette staffers in their offices in 2018 In Hong Kong last August 200 state security agents raided the Apple Daily Their guns weren39t blazing but the devastation of its newsroom continues today Last week agents arrested a senior Apple Daily journalist about to board a Londonbound flight the eighth executive or reporter taken into custody Jimmy Lai Apple Daily39s owner was arrested last August Expect any future confessions a staple in China39s kangaroo courts to be the product of coercive interrogations reminiscent of The Manchurian Candidate39s scriptMost Americans probably would agree that the demise of oldfashioned newspapers in the digital age is a fact of life If the Capital Gazette becomes print journalism39s latest casualty Alden Global Capital which bought Tribune Publishing the Capital Gazette39s parent also is doing what vultures do dissecting the remains and peddling the pieces to maximize profits It39s a business model The same goes for Xi Jinping Like Alden in Annapolis in Hong Kong the leader of China39s Communist Party is shuttering independent news outlets In Xi39s case closing the Apple Daily isn39t about deficient revenue He39s using Hong Kong39s new national security law to mop up its prodemocracy detritus As Xi39s spokesmen would say it39s China39s internal affairBut whether it39s the perils facing the Capitol Gazette or independent media39s disappearing act in Hong Kong Alden39s vulture capitalism and Xi39s authoritarianism are having the same effects Annapolis is only the latest city where print journalism39s demise is eliminating local reporting vital to its citizens39 understanding of events and issues David Simon the former Baltimore Sun journalist who created the television hit The Wire put it well last week when Annapolis unveiled a memorial to the city39s slain journalists quotHere in Maryland the Capitol Gazette and the Sun amp8230 are brutalized by outoftown ownership that answers to the hunger of shareholders not to any public or community obligationquotSubstitute quotcommissars in Beijingquot for quotoutoftown ownershipquot and Simon39s statement fits Hong Kong to a quottquot The stories of Annapolis and the Apple Daily bode ill for the press in any democracy In the United States local news deserts are spreading as newspapers disappear or like broadcast outlets are rolled up by absentee corporate owners whose homogenized news output and formulaic reporting barely cover local issues if at all Abroad meanwhile from journalists tortured by Myanmar39s military junta and Jamal Khashoggi39s assassination by order of Riyadh39s royal court to Russia Hungary and Turkey where authoritarian leaders are making oncevibrant independent media into shadows of themselves China39s crackdown on Apple News is only the latest headline about a free press under growing attackFor countries as well as citizens concerned about the consequences Xi39s destruction of the Apple Daily obviously is part of a bigger story The Biden administration has acknowledged as much quotAuthoritarianism is on the rise around the worldquot Secretary of State Tony Blinken said on World Press Day in March Human progress only occurs if a free press plays its role he asserted quotSome governments incarcerate journalists harass them target them for violence Some use other more subtle means like mandating professional licenses for journalists and using endless bureaucracy amp8230 or imposing high taxes on newsprint to push independent media out of businessquot Blinken couldn39t have been clearer quotThe BidenHarris administration is committed to putting human rights back at the heart of our foreign policy That includes press freedomquotThat39s what makes its tepid actions such a headscratcher quotWe will impose visa restrictions on people who acting on behalf of a foreign government engage in activities including suppressing harassing surveilling threatening or harming journalists or their familiesquot Blinken warned in March To be sure the administration has followed up on its words But denying visas when the heavies in the security services or military who do the dirty work in China Myanmar and Belarus want to visit Disney World or Las Vegas hardly rises to Blinken39s rhetoric Nor is it even close to a credible deterrent to their political bosses in Beijing Yangon or Minsk where crushing a free press including torturing or kidnapping reporters remains the order of the dayFor the Biden administration calling out the frontal assault on press freedoms doesn39t require reinventing the wheel The Cold War provides ample examples of effective tools from information services to public diplomacy to confront the repression Take investment in Voice of America Radio Free Europe and Asia Middle East Broadcasting and other affiliates Since 2017 budgets and capital investment for the government39s international broadcast operations have fallen 22 percent Human resources are in even more dire straits Thanks to the Trump administration39s mismanagement over the last four years the outlets39 roster of Americans and foreign employees who deliver the news is down a whopping 58 percentA public information and diplomacy program to spotlight the repression facing the free press won39t fall on deaf ears A Pew Research Center study on China39s international standing released last week for example revealed that negative views of Beijing its leaders and their actions including on human rights are at historic highs in Europe and Asia as well as the United States quotAcross advanced economies in Europe North America and the AsiaPacific regionquot the Pew analysts wrote based on their surveys earlier in 2021 quotfew people think the Chinese government respects the personal freedoms of its people In 15 of the 17 publics surveyed amp8230 eightinten or more hold this viewquotShould President Biden make the plight of the free press and its impact on democracy around the world a priority It39s not hard to conjure the counterarguments tensions rising with Beijing and Moscow a new hardliner in Tehran Afghanistan on the brink of collapse inflation and the pandemic clouding economic recovery abroad as well as at home The Biden White House faces hard power challenges that trump soft power worries hands down It39s the wrong time to kvetch over roughed up reporters in Myanmar or jailed TV correspondents in Turkey Unfortunately that39s not how Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping appearamp160to see the issueIn 2005 Putin founded RT Russia39s Kremlindirected and funded international television news network as he put it to quotbreak the AngloSaxon monopoly on global information streamsquot Over the last decade Xi Jinping has done the same and more directing the creation of a major international media apparatus Today China39s stateowned television and radio outlets broadcast their version of the news in 140 countries and 65 languages The effort in Xi39s words aims to quotestablish a new world media orderquotThe investments by Putin and Xi will take time to pan out and their success of course isn39t guaranteed But there39s no question the odds in their favor rise if a free press and its role in democracies abroad wither along the wayClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Apple Daily and Annapolis: Two Farewells to the Free Press

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Kent M. Harrington

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