Press freedom is an issue close to my heart.
Here in America, Journalists have never had to worry so much for their physical safety….There are other places outside the United States where being a journalist can be very dangerous. Mexico can be a very bad place for journalists, not so much from the government but from drug cartels. Murderers of journalists in Haiti are likely to go unpunished. Pakistan is considered extremely dangerous for a reporter. The wars in Myanmar and Sudan are also killing journalists.
No deaths of journalists from White Genocide in South Africa have been reported, maybe because there’s no White Genocide in South Africa.
Since 2014, at least 17 journalists have been killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, at least 184 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza.
12 people were killed in Paris, which is not a war zone, in 2015 at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by terrorists angered by cartoons of Muhammad in 2012. Five of the 12 killed were cartoonists.
Here in the United States…a political cartoonist has never been assassinated. The biggest threat to our press freedom here comes from the owners of news outlets, as they all bow in fear before Tiny TACO. But that might be changing.
Over the past few days, cops in Los Angeles haven’t just shot at journalists, but have targeted them. Sometimes shit happens, but it seems the cops in LA are the ones making s–t happen.
British photojournalist Nick Stern was in the city of Paramount in the LA area, and while in a calm area at the time, Stern was hit in the leg with a projectile. He needed surgery to have it removed. He was shot by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The Department is supposedly investigating the incident while saying, “Why golly-gee wilikens, we can’t tell if it was one of our guys.”
A man wearing a maroon T-shirt and a camera strap around his neck sitting after being struck in the right leg with a projectile.
Toby Canham, a freelance photographer on assignment for The New York Post, was hit in the head by a supposed non-lethal bullet while taking photos of the California Highway Patrol. Footage shows a cop aiming at him.
Lauren Tomasi of 9News Australia, a CNN affiliate, was conducting a live broadcast from the scene of a protest on Sunday afternoon when she was shot by the LAPD. Footage from her coverage shows a cop turning to aim at her.
Other journalists have been shot with non-lethal bullets and gas canisters by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Visit Clay Jones’ website and email him at [email protected].