A former chief justice on the U.K. Supreme Court, Lord David Neuberger, has legal credentials that are nominally impeccable. Sadly, Neuberger has decided that the patronage of the Chinese Communist Party is more important than protecting basic human rights.

In 2023, Neuberger co-wrote an argument for media freedom warning that read, “If the media are silenced and journalists are muzzled, a key pillar of a functioning democracy is crushed. It means that an institution which is vital to a free society, which seeks to ensure accountability, to highlight injustices, to inform the public about matters in their interest, and to serve as a conduit between the people and their representatives, is neutralized. The loss of a free, independent media is essentially the loss of democracy.”