Committee to Protect Journalists Seeks Meeting with VP-Elect Pence

Having already branded President-elect Donald Trump a threat to press freedom and journalist safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists has asked for a meeting with Vice President-elect Mike Pence to talk about the Administration's commitment to freedom of the press. They were writing to him in his capacity as head of the transition team, looking for help in correcting the "terrible example" the Trump campaign's treatment of journalists has set, a precedent of vilification that fuels attacks on press freedom, they argue.

In a letter to Vice President-elect Pence Nov. 17, CPJ executive director Joel Simon said he wanted to remind incoming officials about the "danger" that harassment of the press in the US -- President-elect Trump has criticized media broadly as in a conspiracy against him, insulted journalists specifically, and threatened lawsuits and tightening libel laws -- could be used as a "pretext" by others around the world to "persecute their critics."