A reporter confronts Trump’s America, where press freedom is in peril

Layering up in gloves, scarf and beanie, I’m about to head out the door to an interview when something makes me go back into the bedroom and grab my passport from the bottom drawer. I check that my international press card is in my wallet. On the train, I text my husband where I’m headed.

Freedom of information is under pressure in Trump’s White House.Credit: AP

It’s something I haven’t done for years – not since living in Malaysia, where I covered protests calling for fair elections that often ended with police making mass arrests, spraying water cannons, beating protesters and sometimes journalists.

Back then, I’d leave a note on the kitchen bench with the name and phone number of a local lawyer I knew. It wasn’t much of a plan but as a freelancer working with editors in other countries, I figured I needed some kind of back-up, just in case. Stinging tear gas was the worst I encountered on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. As is usually the case, the worst treatment was reserved for local reporters, some of whom were beaten by police.

I’m now far from Malaysia and in a country with a long history of journalists holding governments to account. Yet as I left my New York apartment on that winter morning a few weeks ago, I felt I better have all my ID ready in case I encountered authorities. I was going to meet undocumented immigrants who feared they could be caught in raids as part of President Trump’s plan to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.

Here in the US, the man who has called the media “the enemy of the people” is back in the White House, and the freedom to report is under attack. Since taking office, Trump has been busy burnishing his well-established reputation for targeting media he disagrees with.

Reporters Without Borders says he’s engaged in “a rapid series of attacks on press freedom that amount to a monumental assault on freedom of information”.

The Associated Press news agency has been banned from covering official events at the White House and flying on Air Force One. The AP’s supposed transgression? Continuing to use the term “Gulf of Mexico” after Trump renamed the body of water the “Gulf of America”.

“We’re going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it’s the Gulf of America,” said Trump, who has described the AP as “radical left lunatics”. The agency is now suing White House officials.

While Trump markets himself as being more available to the media than his predecessor, late last month more signs emerged of how the president intends to shape press coverage of his second term. The White House announced it would begin selecting which media outlets can ask the president questions and participate in a pool of journalists to cover his daily events. The White House Correspondents’ Association condemned the development. “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps,” said its president, Eugene Daniels.

US President Donald Trump during a news conference. The White House announced that it would begin selecting which media outlets are allowed to ask the president questions.Credit: Bloomberg

Trump has continued his habit of berating media outlets for what he believes is unfavourable coverage; he is suing several media organisations; he has called for some journalists to be fired and for some broadcast licenses to be revoked. He pardoned more than a dozen people charged or convicted of violent crimes against journalists during the January 6 riots on the US Capitol.

We should hardly be surprised. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for the press. Two days before the US election in November, he said he wouldn’t mind if someone shot at the news media. Trump verbally attacked the media more than 100 times in the two months leading up to the election, according to analysis by Reporters Without Borders. “Donald Trump wants to make this about him versus the press,” the organisation’s US executive director Clayton Weimers said. “In reality, this fight is about Donald Trump versus every American’s First Amendment rights.”

In other words, this assault on media freedom matters for anyone wanting an accurate picture of what is going on in the US.

Given the level of misinformation coming from Trump and his associates, the ability to scrutinise government leaders and policies seems more vital than ever. Case in point: Trump’s recent accusation that Ukraine started the war with Russia, a claim demonstrably untrue and one that the president himself walked back just days later.

The “Trump effect” on press freedom goes far beyond US borders. It emboldens other leaders to bend the flow of information to their will.

On a practical level, Trump’s cuts to foreign aid have stripped funding from media outlets covering governments with proven records of spreading propaganda, jailing journalists and shutting down independent media, from Myanmar to Iran and Afghanistan. The risks journalists face in those countries cannot be comparable, but any threat to media freedom is worrying, no matter where it occurs.

In the most recent World Press Freedom Index, the US was ranked 55th out of 180 countries and territories, its lowest-ever ranking.

With Trump in the White House for the next four years, the US media is buckling in for a rocky ride. (And yes, the law only allows him to serve two terms, despite his suggestions he may like to stay on).

What will the media landscape look like by the time Trump is required to hand in the keys?

Liz Gooch is an Australian journalist and editor based in New York.