Bob Schieffer, a journalist with more than five decades of experience, said it best during a recent event at the New York Press Club: “A free press is vital to a healthy democracy.” What an encouraging thought at a time of dramatic changes in the news business. And what a fitting prinicple in light of a recent report on press freedom in Afghanistan released by Reporters without Borders (RSF).
In Afghanistan, a country where the words “press freedom” have formed a tenuous phrase, it matters that RSF says it is in a free-fall there. The work of women journalists there is especially dangerous and even deadly.
Why should the freedom of the press in a country halfway around the world matter? The U.S. is heavily invested, more than 7 years in, in a fumbling nation building effort there. We are increasing the presence of troops. The Taliban is resurgent and curtailing every independent voice they can–especially the voices of journalists.
What Bob Schieffer said was in reference to the situation in the U.S., where many in the journalism profession are wringing their hands over the so-called “future of news.” Schieffer pointed out that there will always be a need for information, and thus always a need for news and those who gather and deliver it to the public.
If he is right, and five decades of experience is a hefty credential to base such statements on, the U.S. is not the only place that is, and will be, in need of news and information.
Afghanistan’s press freedom situation might just turn out to be the U.S.’s unlikely mirror as we continue to watch the face of our own media change.