As promised on social media last Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced the winners of their Press Oppressor awards on Monday evening—planned just after President Donald Trump shared his decision to give out awards for the “Most Dishonest and Corrupt Media Awards,” capping off a year during which he waged frequent attacks on media outlets and individual journalists.
The president had the dubious honor of being recognized for his “Overall Achievement in Undermining Global Press Freedom,” both for his own vitriolic anti-press rhetoric and the impact his attitude toward journalism has had in other countries.
“The awards are our response to Trump’s announcement,” Courtney Radsch, advocacy director for CPJ, told Common Dreams. “This idea of denigrating and pillorying the press has real consequences around the world, and we’ve seen that as we’ve just had the worst year on record in terms of journalists being imprisoned for doing their work.”
As CPJ reported last month, 262 reporters were imprisoned in 2017, up from the previous year’s historical high of 259. The worst jailers of journalists were Turkey, China, and Egypt.
Nine journalists were arrested in connection with the Disrupt J20 protests on Trump’s Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C., stoking fears of a potential crackdown on the U.S. media under the new president. But CPJ’s main concern with the president’s anti-press stance is his rhetoric in speeches, TV appearances, and on social media:
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