Committee to Protect Journalists ‘Awards’ Trump for ‘Undermining Global Press Freedom’

The Committee to Protect Journalists has responded to President Trump‘s trolling of the media with upcoming “fake news” awards by announcing some awards of their own.

The CPJ unveiled “Press Oppressors” awards today that doesn’t just criticize Trump, but multiple world leaders for their role in hurting press freedom worldwide.

President Trump was “honored” with the award for Overall Achievement in Undermining Global Press Freedom:

The United States, with its First Amendment protection for a free press, has long stood as a beacon for independent media around the world. While previous U.S. presidents have each criticized the press to some degree, they have also made public commitments to uphold its essential role in democracy, at home and abroad. Trump, by contrast, has consistently undermined domestic news outlets and declined to publicly raise freedom of the press with repressive leaders such as Xi, Erdoğan, and Sisi. Authorities in China, Syria, and Russia have adopted Trump’s “fake news” epithet, and Erdoğan has applauded at least one of his verbal attacks on journalists. Under Trump’s administration, the Department of Justice has failed to commit to guidelines intended to protect journalists’ sources, and the State Department has proposed to cut funding for international organizations that help buttress international norms in support of free expression. As Trump and other Western powers fail to pressure the world’s most repressive leaders into improving the climate for press freedom, the number of journalists in prison globally is at a record high.

As for most “thin-skinned” leader when it comes to the press, Trump was only the runner-up, while the winner was Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Erdoğan also won the award for Most Outrageous Use of Terror Laws Against the Press, while Xi Jingping, Aung San Suu Kyi, Vladimir Putin, and Andrzej Duda were also recognized for their contributions in undermining free press.

You can read the full list here.

[image via screengrab]

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