Geneva – Trump’s Hostility Toward Media Has A Purpose, U.N. Human Rights Expert Says

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    U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at White House after a trip to Springfield, Missouri, in Washington D.C., August 30, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos BarriaGeneva – U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media are part of a global trend of hostility to freedom of speech and damage the U.S. public interest, a U.N. human rights expert said on Friday.

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    David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of expression, said Trump’s attacks, such as a Feb. 17 tweet listing news outlets that he considered “the enemy of the American People”, were not without purpose.

    “They have concrete aims: to intimidate reporters into certain kinds of coverage, or clarify for his favored outlets what coverage he desires, or plant the seeds of doubt about news stories (such as the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller).”

    The president’s broadsides also served to silence criticism of his policies and to undermine the public’s right to know what the government was doing with their tax dollars, he said.

    “The primary victim of Trump’s campaign against independent news is the American public. He may see it as valuable politically, but it’s wrong, and it risks doing long-term damage to a core value,” Kaye wrote in an article published on the Just Security online forum.

    “When we tie together the jeremiads and rhetoric with what the Trump administration is doing in other governing spaces, the practice of attacking the press becomes clearer as policy than solely reckless rant.”

    Kaye’s analysis of Trump’s attacks on the media comes two days after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein raised the question of whether Trump’s remarks amounted to an incitement to attack journalists.

    “President Trump’s statements are indeed reckless, but they are consistent with a troubling trend of hostility toward open and honest government,” Kaye wrote. “And sadly, from the global perspective, it’s part of a general trend of hostility to freedom of expression, online and off.”

    Freedom of the press existed, Kaye said, because the public had a right to information. He referred to an Aug. 4 press conference where Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanded that the “culture of leaking must stop”.

    Sessions’ intent was not only to deter sources and whistleblowers but “to deprive the public of stories of the highest public interest” about the administration, Kaye said.

    He said Trump was a “regular purveyor” of fake news, defined as “intentionally fraudulent information given to the public”, and his administration operated as if it had something to hide.


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    6 Comments
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    6 years ago

    “President Trump’s statements are indeed reckless, but they are consistent with a troubling trend of hostility toward open and honest government”

    Open and honest media? Gotto love that. The media is a pro at twisting facts and lying. We saw that in Charolsvile where Trump clearly denounced neo nazis and never walked it back. And we see it every day with the Israeli Palestinain crisis where the media paints it as two legitimates sides and even worse, it justifies acts of terror.

    6 years ago

    Nowadys where everything is so fast pace the notion of freedom of the press should be scrutinized. Governments need a certain amount of space and privacy to conduct its business and necessary operations. On a similar note, it quiet intimidating to our cops that every time they stop someone they have a cell phone camera in their face

    Yossy111
    Yossy111
    6 years ago

    Time to consider serious cuts to the USA’s contributions to the UN. These unelected bureaucrats from all over the world clearly have too much time and too much money on their hands.

    Buchwalter
    Buchwalter
    6 years ago

    The media publicizes the incongruity and ignorance of his statement. His fitness was questioned by senator Corker , chairman of the foreign relations committee and senator flake both Republicans