
The Growing Threat to Journalism Around the World - FabHK
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/opinion/press-freedom-arthur-sulzberger.html
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___To give you a sense of what this retreat looks like on the ground, let me
tell you a story I’ve never shared publicly before. Two years ago, we got a
call from a United States government official warning us of the imminent
arrest of a New York Times reporter based in Egypt named Declan Walsh. Though
the news was alarming, the call was actually fairly standard. Over the years,
we’ve received countless such warnings from American diplomats, military
leaders and national security officials.

But this particular call took a surprising and distressing turn. We learned
the official was passing along this warning without the knowledge or
permission of the Trump administration. Rather than trying to stop the
Egyptian government or assist the reporter, the official believed, the Trump
administration intended to sit on the information and let the arrest be
carried out. The official feared being punished for even alerting us to the
danger.

Unable to count on our own government to prevent the arrest or help free
Declan if he were imprisoned, we turned to his native country, Ireland, for
help. Within an hour, Irish diplomats traveled to his house and safely
escorted him to the airport before Egyptian forces could detain him._ __

Makes me proud of the Irish diplomatic service. They are small but bloody good
at what they do. I know numerous examples were they have put themselves on the
line to help protect and rescue journalists, activists (and obviously)
citizens.

