These are dangerous times to express public opinions. To be able to do so without fear of censorship is an endangered privilege in the current climate. The world is in a state of chaos, autocratic tendencies are on the rise, and headlines are distressing.
Just when it is most needed, the perimeter of democracy and public debate is closing in. Images of autocracy from key global powers may embolden yet more reckless and ruthless autocrats and discourage more people, not least journalists, from speaking their truth.
Reporters Without Borders is concerned by the number of journalists who are being killed bringing these stories and images to us. Moreover, it sees “a worrying decline in support and respect for media autonomy and an increase in pressure from the state or other political actors”.
The pressure on journalists is increasing in Donald Trump’s America too, where a combination of artificial intelligence, misinformation and the encroachment of a climate of fear imperils the media, academic freedom and the right to protest.
This weekend The Guardian carried a story about an Australian blogger, Alistair Kitchen, a regular sort of guy who had a blog in which he stated pro-Palestinian views. He was going to the US, and worried about deportations of other regular people from Germany and France who were denied entry by the US border force for seemingly trivial reasons.
Mindful of students across the US who had been deported for holding views critical of the state of Israel, Kitchen deleted some of his more contentious blog posts, including those supporting the Columbia student protests.
To his disbelief, he was still denied entry at the US border. He said agents asked him about his blog and knew about the deleted items. He gave them the passcode for his phone, which he now regrets, and they rifled through everything in his messages and images before deporting him back to Melbourne.
It is a cautionary tale for our times. This is not only an extremely dangerous time to hold public opinions, it is just an extremely dangerous time. Both Britain’s King Charles and Donald Trump held military parades for their birthdays on Saturday — a festive midsummer display of transatlantic military force.
Home of the brave?
At his parade on Saturday Trump said in a speech that the US was “the hottest country right now”, which was apparently not a reference to Los Angeles burning due to protesters clashing with federal immigration agents. Trump’s America might be hot right now, but is it still the “land of the free and home of the brave”?
While Trump flexed the defensive might of the US, millions of Americans protested across the country against his style of governance under the theme “No Kings”. Trump had ordered National Guard troops to crush dissent in Los Angeles without the consent of its governor earlier in the week, a display of presidential power not seen in 50 years — since civil rights resistance to Jim Crow.
The Trump administration took over California’s National Guard to restore order and protect immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents conducting raids to arrest immigrants they believed to be in the country illegally. More than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines were deployed, with authorisation to detain people.
The atmosphere of siege this created has infiltrated into the arena of debate and analysis globally. What to make of these displays of military power and strength amid images of protesters and civilians crushed by military force the world over?
In an age of deepfakes, how can we even be sure any of it is real?
As Iran and Israel escalate their war from the rhetorical to missile bombardments, we can only hope the US has the sanity not to intervene and drag us all into a militarised dystopia, at home and abroad.
• Dr Masie is a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics, Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa
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