In the past decade it has become more commonplace for authoritarian governments to detain reporters on spurious charges. There’s no shortage of examples. In October 2018 The Washington Post’s Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. And in March 2023 Evan Gershkovich, a Moscow-based correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested and held in a small cell in Russia’s Lefortovo Prison. In July 2024 he was sentenced to 16 years at a penal colony. But in August 2024 he was freed as part of the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War.

Another ominous trend is the growing legal threats against the owners and publishers of news outlets, sometimes termed lawfare. Maria Ressa, the cofounder and CEO of Rappler, a digital news company in the Philippines, has been forced to defend herself in numerous frivolous lawsuits designed to exhaust her resolve and resources. Despite the threat of imprisonment, Ressa continues to publish every day, and commitment to press freedom earned her a Nobel Peace Prize in 2021. And in Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai, the billionaire publisher of the pro-democracy Apple Daily, has languished in prison since 2020. Global efforts to free Lai—now 78 years old and in failing health—have been unsuccessful.