One by one, the lights are going out on press freedom

Take your pick. Across the globe, from Indonesia to India, to Israel, to Serbia, to Turkey, to the United States, press freedom is under sustained threat.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Those are just examples. In truth, virtually wherever you look, the ability of journalists to work freely faces attack. The latest example, in Spain, sees the country’s leading newspaper, El País, coming under fire from the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. He’s attempting to dislodge the title’s majority owner, Joseph Oughourlian, and replace him with someone more to his taste. El País is digging in, making Oughourlian its president.

The fight has added symbolism. Not only is El País widely regarded as Spain’s paper of record, but it was the torchlight in the country’s shift to democracy after the death of General Franco in 1975. The scars from those events and the horrors that preceded them are still raw, and Sánchez’s move is deeply troubling.

Sadly, and almost unbelievably, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, after two world wars that still see annual commemorations faithfully held and the repetition of the promise “Never again”, reporters are increasingly stifled and, worse, severely punished. All for going about their business and trying to describe and explain what they are witnessing. We are hurtling towards a dark, unsighted abyss.