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International media leaders have
signalled their deep concern with the US administration’s persistent
attacks on the press by calling on US President Donald Trump to halt his
‘fake news’
accusations and to ensure White House briefings remain accessible to all
media. A letter, sent to the US administration, firmly rejects
President Trump’s repeated accusation that media is the ‘enemy of the
American People’, and calls on his administration to build a better
professional relationship with the media.
Over 40 editors in chief,
CEOs and publishers representing media from around the world have signed a letter addressed to President Trump
outlining how his regular labelling of mainstream news outlets as ‘fake
news’ as well as the exclusion of critical media outlets from a recent
White House press briefing signalled a worrying decline in
accountability for his administration.
“It is deeply unhelpful to see the President of
the United States of America fuelling antagonism towards news outlets by
labelling them – misleadingly - as ‘fake news’,” the letter to
President Trump said. “We fear that the overall climate for media
freedom currently being fostered by your presidency seriously
jeopardises the on-going ability of a free press to hold power to
account in the United States.”
The letter, sent to the US administration on
behalf of the Executive Committee, World Editors
Forum and Media Freedom boards of the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers
(WAN-IFRA), highlighted the damage the president’s comments – regularly
made using the social media platform Twitter – are having on an industry
attempting to respond to the phenomenon of disinformation and ‘fake
news’.
Signalling
growing concern from among the international press community, the letter
highlighted the United States’ historic relationship with a free press
to underline how the president’s actions since coming to office risk
inspiring leaders in countries with weaker press freedom safeguards to
repress or stifle essential freedoms. The letter also firmly rejected
President Trump’s repeated accusation that media is the ‘enemy of the
American People’.
“At a
time when journalists and news media are being
increasingly targeted for violent reprisal (and, in too many cases,
often deadly retribution as a result of the work they do), the tone of
your comment is highly inflammatory,” said the letter. “In a deeply
divided America, a country facing many challenges on numerous fronts,
the need for a vocal and critical press to act as the watchdog over
essential freedoms on behalf of society seems more urgent than ever.”
WAN-IFRA urged the president
to “welcome and encourage the kind of rigorous self-criticism a free
media upholds as a means of ensuring the highest attainable standards of
governance,” calling for a meeting between his administration and
representatives from the global media to discuss rebuilding a better
relationship.
Read
the full
letter here: http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/170915/
Contact / Inquiries
For more information, contact Andrew Heslop,
Director Press Freedom, WAN-IFRA.
andrew.heslop@wan-ifra.org
More information
about WAN-IFRA’s media freedom work:
www.wan-ifra.org/pressfreedom
Distributed by Pressat
No media attached. Please contact WAN-IFRA for more information.