Dozens of journalists were murdered in 2018. This is a crisis of press freedom.

In a year-end report, the Committee to Protect Journalists counted 53 journalists killed between Jan 1 and Dec 14, including 34 targeted in reprisal for their work — nearly double the 18 such murders it recorded in 2017. The growing number of journalists jailed or attacked on that pretext [of dissemintating "false" or "fake" news] is one illustration of the deleterious influence that President Donald Trump has had on press freedom globally. His labeling of the US media as the “enemy of the people” and charges of “fake news” have been imitated by regimes around the world. At the same time, his refusal to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, despite a CIA finding that he likely ordered it, has, as CPJ put it, “signaled that countries that do enough business with the United States are free to murder journalists without consequence.” It won’t be a surprise if 2019 produces another large body count.