Read up on two journalists who have been silenced by the government. Discuss the reason for the silence and evaluate whether the silence is appropriate. Post your answer to the blog.
1. Jamal Khashoggi
Khashoggi is a former editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan, and also a columnist for The Washington Post. He was killed on 2 October 2018, shortly after entering the Saudi consulate located in Istanbul, Turkey. According to an investigation report by the CIA, it was Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who ordered the journalist’s death.
The reason why Khashoggi was killed is because he had long standing ties to the Saudi royal family. He would constantly criticise the royal prince and the kingdom's direction and advocated for reform in the country. Just before his death, he launched several projects to combat online abuse by the Saudi government and accused Crown Prince Mohammed of mismanaging the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Any form of silence is inappropriate, if the journalist is reporting the truth or something deemed as public interest. Moreover, the form of silence in this case even caused the life of a good journalist, which is an unacceptable action.
2. Zhang Zhan
Zhang, an independent video journalist who had been posting reports from Wuhan on Twitter and YouTube since early February of year 2020, went missing in the city exactly one day after she published a video criticising the government’s countermeasures to contain the virus. On May 15, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice stating that Zhang had been arrested and detained for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” and was being held at the Pudong Xinqu Detention Centre.
Like mostly all other journalists, the reason why Zhang went missing was because she reported something not favourable to the Chinese government. With China being the top jailer of journalists who like to freely report, according to CPJ, it is no surprise why Zhang was silenced.
Same for this case, such a form of silence is inappropriate as this will restrict press freedom or free of speech, leading to the public not able to have media personnel as their watchdog to the government, making the government able to do whatever they want.
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