Many commentators compare the Trump administration’s attacks on the free press to authoritarian regimes abroad, like Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Those comparisons are valid. But we also have a domestic population of almost 2 million people – about the same as Budapest – that lived in a repressive censorship state long before Trump walked down the golden escalator. We’re talking about the U.S. prison population and the journalists who try to cover the incarceration system from the inside.
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Advocacy Director Seth Stern and activist Theodore Amey wrote for the Columbia Journalism Review about the harsh realities of being a prison journalist. They wrote that:
“Incarcerated journalists tell stories no one else can. Prisoners are often held in deplorable conditions, regularly attacked, and sometimes murdered. Missing out on those stories is a major loss, not just for the incarcerated but for anyone who wants their government held accountable for how it treats their fellow citizens. When the public entrusts and pays for correctional agencies to care for those who are incarcerated, it deserves to know what’s going on.”
