Too many liberal U.S. journalists whine for no reason about how oppressed and attacked they are as a profession. Just on Tuesday with the launch of President Trump’s impeachment trial, some complained about having to go through a metal detector, as if it was some sort of assault of press freedom. Yes, seriously.
But while we rightfully mock such instances of journalistic snowflakery, the sad persecution of left-wing dissident journalist Glenn Greenwald by the authoritarian president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, reminds us that the global threat to press freedom is still very real.
Greenwald’s honesty is refreshing, even coming from a far-left perspective. He was brave in his willingness, as a progressive, to criticize the Left for madness such as the now-debunked Russia collusion hoax that suffused much of the liberal media for almost two years. I also appreciate some of the journalistic work that the publication he founded, the Intercept, does, and how it exposes both Democratic and Republican establishment misconduct.
Yet it really doesn’t matter whether you like Greenwald or not. Anyone who values press freedom should be appalled by what’s happening to him in Brazil right now.
No matter what you think of @ggreenwald, this is clearly an investigation motivated by Brazil’s homophobic President who behaves like an autocrat and doesn’t want to have corruption exposed. https://t.co/gs3NR2WDuw
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) January 21, 2020
Regardless of your personal feelings about Glenn, this is a regime with deep authoritarian tendencies personally targeting a critical journalist. It’s a horrendous abuse of power that everyone should denounce. https://t.co/LjegP9hRCI
— dylan matthews (@dylanmatt) January 21, 2020
Greenwald lives in Brazil with his husband, who is a left-wing Brazilian politician, and their children. Since moving to the South American country in 2005, Greenwald has become a vocal critic of Bolsonaro.
For instance, Greenwald penned a 2014 piece decrying Bolsonaro as “the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world.” So, too, the writer has helped expose political wrongdoing and abuses in Brazil, holding power to account in true journalistic fashion.
Here’s how the New York Times summed up Greenwald’s company’s stunning investigation:
Now the Brazilian government is charging Greenwald with what seems to be trumped-up charges of “cybercrimes.” They claim he went beyond merely publishing leaked documents but actively engaged in criminal activity to obtain the information. Experts told the New York Times that nothing in the government’s legal complaint supports that claim. Greenwald himself decried the charges as “an obvious attempt to attack a free press in retaliation for the revelations we reported about … the Bolsonaro government.” From all the evidence we have right now, this indeed appears to be the case.
The entire situation is a fiasco. Greenwald deserves the backing of all journalists from across the political spectrum. And the many liberal journalists quick to sound the alarm and play the victim when they face criticism should realize that all the times they cry wolf hurt people who truly suffer abuses of press freedom.
Editor’s Note: An original version of this article stated that Greenwald was arrested. It has been updated to reflect the fact that he faces charges, but has not yet been arrested. It has also been updated to reflect the fact that Greenwald moved to Brazil in 2005, not 2011 as originally stated.
