Let's talk about press freedom

Democracy is in danger, and it is not at all a hidden danger: Freedom of the press is being constrained across the world, and Western democratic states are among those doing it — even if, unlike authoritarian regimes, their governments seldom get their hands dirty in the process. #monkeypox #
Like elsewhere, we have seen troubling tendencies simply grow worse. President Donald Trump is personally responsible for a deterioration of press freedoms in the US. We have watched as journalists with epidemiological views that differ from the government's, or criticizing the administration's response to the crisis, face blanket defamation, being collectively denounced as "fake news." That is a tendency that has only gotten worse of late. Over the past three years we have seen a troubling development in the US in which journalists increasingly face verbal and even physical threats and attacks.
Laws on freedom of information that allow journalists to request government data and records have been suspended. Government proceedings that journalists usually attend have moved online, with varying degrees of access for the press. In the U.S., Trump’s antagonism to journalists sets a poor example for U.S. state and local officials. United States governors and mayors have created a patchwork of access to press conferences around the country. In Florida, the governor on March 28 barred one reporter from attending a press conference after she asked about social distancing measures.
Governments around the world are monitoring mobile phone location data and testing or rolling out new tracking apps to follow the spread of COVID-19, according to news reports. the surveillance could imperil source confidentiality. The systems are introduced with limited oversight, and could endure long after the pandemic. Telecom companies in Italy, Germany, and Austria are turning over location data to public health officials, though aggregated and anonymized; governments in South Korea and South Africa are monitoring individual cell phone locations, and Israel authorized security agents to access location and other data from millions of mobile phone users.