Across the globe and here at home, a free press often comes at a steep cost | Editorial

The disinformation coming out of Russia surrounding the deadly concert hall terror attack underscores the desperate need for a free press there and around the globe.

Even before the more than 130 bodies had been counted, President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine and the West for the massacre — despite the Islamic State claiming responsibility for the assault. The state-controlled Russian media followed Putin’s lead, suggesting Ukraine was responsible.

Only after the U.S. and France confirmed ISIS was to blame, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied his country was involved, did Putin acknowledge the terror group’s role.

The differing narratives unfolded as Evan Gershkovich, a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, approached one year of imprisonment in Russia on bogus charges of being a spy. The U.S. State Department condemned Gershkovich’s arrest and said he is being “wrongfully detained” as part of Russia’s “ongoing war against the truth.”

Journalism is not a crime. But over the years, Putin has systematically shut down Russia’s free press. Nearly 60 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

» READ MORE: My brother, Evan Gershkovich, has been unjustly detained in Russia for a year | Opinion

At least 22 journalists are in prison in Russia for essentially doing their job, including Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian American editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested in October.

Russia is not the only country that has cracked down on the free press. More than 320 journalists are behind bars around the globe. One-third of the jailed journalists are in China (44), Myanmar (43), and Belarus (28), the CPJ said. The war in Gaza has proved particularly deadly, with almost 100 journalists and media workers reported dead since Oct. 7.

The suppression of fact-based information comes as authoritarians are on the rise and democracy weakens across the globe. Half of the world’s countries are suffering from weakened election systems and curtailed rights, including freedom of expression and assembly, a report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance found.

The attacks on democracy and the free press are also happening in the United States, thanks in large measure to the rise of Donald Trump. Shortly after being elected president in 2016, Trump accused the press of being an “enemy of the American people.” Trump labeled the news organizations and articles he did not agree with as “fake news,” a term he repeated 2,000 times during his one term in office.

During a meeting with FBI Director James Comey, Trump said reporters who publish classified information should be imprisoned. Trump has repeatedly called for loosening libel laws to make it easier to sue journalists.

Efforts to chill news reporting have been part of the Trump playbook for decades. In 1979, he threatened to sue the Village Voice. In 1984, Trump sued the Chicago Tribune after the architecture critic called one of his building plans “aesthetically lousy.” The case was dismissed.

In 2005, Trump sued journalist Timothy O’Brien for a book that detailed how the real estate mogul was not a billionaire. That case was also dismissed. In 2016, Trump threatened to sue the Washington Post for an article that detailed how his casinos went bankrupt.

» READ MORE: Stop the war on a free press | Editorial

In January, Trump was ordered to pay the New York Times nearly $400,000 in legal fees after his lawsuit against the paper for detailing his finances was dismissed. Earlier this month, he sued ABC’s George Stephanopoulos for comments regarding Trump’s sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll.

A study by the CPJ found Trump’s attacks on the press “dangerously undermined truth and consensus” across the country. If elected, Trump’s allies have said he would seek retribution against the media.

That’s a stark contrast from President Joe Biden, who said the U.S. is working around the clock to free Gershkovich. The unjust jailing of reporters like Gershkovich is an assault on truth and freedom that too many Americans take for granted.

A sign at a protest rally summed up the stakes by borrowing from Martin Niemöller’s famous Holocaust poem: “First they came for the journalists. We don’t know what happened after that.”

Freeing Gershkovich and other jailed journalists is essential to telling the stories strongmen like Putin and Trump want to hide.