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David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of
expression, said Trump's attacks, such as a Feb. 17 tweet
listing news outlets that he considered "the enemy of the
American People", were not without purpose.
"They have concrete aims: to intimidate reporters into certain
kinds of coverage, or clarify for his favored outlets what
coverage he desires, or plant the seeds of doubt about news
stories (such as the Russia investigation led by Robert
Mueller)."
The president's broadsides also served to silence criticism of
his policies and to undermine the public's right to know what
the government was doing with their tax dollars, he said.
"The primary victim of Trump’s campaign against independent news
is the American public. He may see it as valuable politically,
but it’s wrong, and it risks doing long-term damage to a core
value," Kaye wrote in an article published on the Just Security
online forum.
"When we tie together the jeremiads and rhetoric with what the
Trump administration is doing in other governing spaces, the
practice of attacking the press becomes clearer as policy than
solely reckless rant."
Kaye's analysis of Trump's attacks on the media comes two days
after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad
al-Hussein raised the question of whether Trump's remarks
amounted to an incitement to attack journalists.
"President Trump’s statements are indeed reckless, but they are
consistent with a troubling trend of hostility toward open and
honest government," Kaye wrote. "And sadly, from the global
perspective, it’s part of a general trend of hostility to
freedom of expression, online and off."
Freedom of the press existed, Kaye said, because the public had
a right to information. He referred to an Aug. 4 press
conference where Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanded that
the "culture of leaking must stop".
Sessions' intent was not only to deter sources and
whistleblowers but "to deprive the public of stories of the
highest public interest" about the administration, Kaye said.
He said Trump was a "regular purveyor" of fake news, defined as
"intentionally fraudulent information given to the public", and
his administration operated as if it had something to hide.
(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Larry King)
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