A Free Press
Re “Reporter abducted, killed in Basra.” (Sept. 20): The ceaseless persecution of the media in un-democratic countries reminds us that freedom of the press, like all freedoms, has a price. We tend to forget that our reporters and journalists place themselves in harm’s way every day to bring us the news from places where they are considered enemies of the state. Third-world news-reporters are in even greater danger because their despotic leaders fear a free press within more than they fear the foreign media. While the liberal democracies must champion freedom of the press wherever it is suppressed, they must also guard it diligently at home, because one thing that many of our own politicians have in common with despots is a tendency to blame the media for the message. Imagine how happy some of our own politicians would be if they could, like the Nepalese for example, round up the usual media suspects whenever their crimes and misdemeanors hit the airwaves and the news stands.
William Bedford
Toronto, Ontario
