The Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom watchdog, on Thursday declared that a Donald Trump presidency would be a threat to press freedom.
The Republican presidential nominee, “through his words and actions as a candidate for president of the United States, has consistently betrayed First Amendment values,” said the group’s chairwoman, Sandra Mims Rowe, in a statement.
According to Mims Rowe, the board of directors passed a resolution last week “declaring Trump an unprecedented threat to the rights of journalists and to CPJ’s ability to advocate for press freedom around the world.”
The committee cited various instances in which Trump has made threats and vilified the media throughout his presidential campaign, including times in which he labeled the press “‘dishonest’ and ‘scum’ and singled out individual news organizations and journalists.
The statement continues, “any failure of the United States to uphold its own standards emboldens dictators and despots to restrict the media in their own countries.”
On Thursday at a rally in Florida, Trump made his latest comments against the media.
“Corporate media is no longer involved in journalism. They’re a political special interest no different than any lobbyist with a total political agenda,” the GOP nominee said.
