Join Us Now and Share the News - Part III: Principled Stance Is Never Cheap
Almost every day I read news about journalists who get killed, imprisoned, or imprisoned and then killed (sometimes inside prison). Hours ago in IRC I shared 3 articles about Ukrainian journalists who died on the job as recently as some days ago. I also shared a couple of links about a journalist in Turkey who had been arrested based on phony charges.
I am proud to say I live in a country where journalism is easier to do than in Ukraine or in Turkey. Very seldom do British journalists die for their journalism in the UK (some die elsewhere, overseas). Journalism isn't a crime, but sometimes there are civil matters and disputes.
Putting it more crudely, my life isn't at risk. I never fear that publishing something would result in a raid or something worse. It's very rare, but it can happen [1, 2, 3, 4] (albeit those who resort to it can be held accountable for abuse of power or misuse of authority).
In some countries, journalism means putting one's life at risk (even brutally, like by a "Jihadi John"); in many places journalists get arrested; here, in the UK, many are being SLAPPed. Holding people accountable for SLAPPs isn't infeasible, it just takes patience and persistence.
Protecting the truth and insisting that the general public is made aware of things that really happened isn't cheap. It's not free. However, it's not about price, it is about freedom. █