Once a global exemplar of press freedom, the United States is experiencing a ‘profound shift’ in how the country’s media operates as the Trump administration pursues retaliatory measures against journalists who fall foul of the White House.

That is according to Karen Kaiser, former general counsel at global news organisation Associated Press and now director of access to justice at the London-headquartered Clooney Foundation for Justice.

‘We need to understand and recognise the essential role of an independent press in sustaining democracies,’ she told a conference session on targeted sanctions and using legal tools to boost accountability.

‘It’s the watchdog. The role of the press is to shine a light on the government, expose abuses and to hold power to account. Without a free press providing independent, accurate, and trusted information, people will only hear what the government wants them to hear. And then once that free flow of information breaks down, accountability goes with it. And then you really have a fundamental problem for the rule of law and democratic societies.’

Karen Kaiser

Karen Kaiser: 'We need to understand and recognise the essential role of an independent press in sustaining democracies'

Source: Paul Rogerson

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Kaiser stressed that curbs on media freedoms are no longer limited to authoritarian states. ‘The US is a great example of this,’ she added. ‘It used to be a global model of press freedom, but is now experiencing a profound shift in how the press is operating. Retaliation and access restrictions targeting the press pool – we’ve seen it in the last few weeks, with networks like CNN, MSN, Politico, all barred.

‘Unprecedented lawsuits are being filed by a sitting president against companies like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. There is a general erosion of protections. So as we look at all these attacks against the media, we come back to targeted sanctions, because administrative tools are being weaponised against the press.

'We need to look at legal instruments that can be deployed to defend the press. And that brings us to that vital intersection between press freedom and targeted sanctions, which was championed by the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom in its first advisory report, The Use of Targeted Sanctions to Protect Journalists.’

Kaiser concluded: ‘Attacks on journalists and attacks on the free press must be considered part of the human rights violations that merit the imposition of sanctions.’