In the Americas, there’s a growing wave of populist presidents and governments. Whether right-wing or left-wing, something they have in common is their attacks on the free press and their need to silence it. They’ve done it in recent years through physical violence (including murders), imprisonment, digital attacks, spying, and forcing journalists into exile. This will most likely get worse in 2023. The world will have to watch out: Press freedom is already threatened enough to silence an entire region in the West.
There are countries, such as Cuba, Venezuela, or Nicaragua, that have been black holes for freedom of expression and human rights for years, where journalism is almost impossible due to the lack of guarantees provided by officials and physical and judicial attacks on journalists. But other nations are falling into autocratic spirals where citizens are no longer receiving real information due to the wave of official propaganda and violence against journalists.
Mexico is an emblematic case. Since Andrés Manuel López Obrador became president in 2018, 37 journalists have been murdered, according to Article 19. In 2022 alone, 12 were murdered, and the impunity in their cases is 90%. Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the world for the press. And at least two journalists have been spied on by this government with the malware Pegasus, probably by the Armed Forces. Despite all of this, the president attacks journalists daily in his press conferences.
In Central America, harassment and spying also come from governments. In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has treated the independent press as a personal enemy. Many journalists at the digital news site El Faro have had to go into exile after threats of physical and legal violence. At least 22 journalists in that country have been spied on with Pegasus.
The same threats and violence are happening in Guatemala and Honduras. Since August, Rubén Zamora, editor-in-chief of El Periódico, one of the most important Guatemalan newspapers, has been imprisoned by the government of President Alejandro Giammattei. The newspaper ceased printing in November. Even more stable Central American countries, such as Costa Rica, elected a populist president who regularly attacks La Nación, the country’s most important media group.
In Brazil, attacks against journalists have grown during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. He and his family carry them out frequently, especially in social media. Meanwhile, fake news and propaganda overflow the public conversation. The future president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will have to deal with this legacy, but he also has a long history of confrontation with the critical press.
This same physical, digital, and legal violence can be seen almost everywhere in the region. That’s alongside a financial crisis in the news industry and a lack of real business models (that wouldn’t be dependent on international grants or government advertising) to keep independent media newsrooms afloat. The situation seems desperate.
Journalists have never had good salaries in the Americas, but in recent years, their precariousness has grown. The new generations of journalists have salaries at which it is very difficult not only to do their work with dignity, but even to live adequately.
Being a journalist is becoming a heroic profession in the Americas, and neither governments nor society is acting to protect the watchdogs of democracy. Despite all this, great investigations continue to be carried out. And even under threat, in exile or in jail, Latin American journalists have continued bringing to light the corruption and lies of those in power. In 2023, it’s time to support them, so that next year’s predictions can be different for the entire region.
Mael Vallejo is a Mexican journalist and senior editor of Post Opinión at The Washington Post.
In the Americas, there’s a growing wave of populist presidents and governments. Whether right-wing or left-wing, something they have in common is their attacks on the free press and their need to silence it. They’ve done it in recent years through physical violence (including murders), imprisonment, digital attacks, spying, and forcing journalists into exile. This will most likely get worse in 2023. The world will have to watch out: Press freedom is already threatened enough to silence an entire region in the West.
There are countries, such as Cuba, Venezuela, or Nicaragua, that have been black holes for freedom of expression and human rights for years, where journalism is almost impossible due to the lack of guarantees provided by officials and physical and judicial attacks on journalists. But other nations are falling into autocratic spirals where citizens are no longer receiving real information due to the wave of official propaganda and violence against journalists.
Mexico is an emblematic case. Since Andrés Manuel López Obrador became president in 2018, 37 journalists have been murdered, according to Article 19. In 2022 alone, 12 were murdered, and the impunity in their cases is 90%. Mexico is one of the deadliest countries in the world for the press. And at least two journalists have been spied on by this government with the malware Pegasus, probably by the Armed Forces. Despite all of this, the president attacks journalists daily in his press conferences.
In Central America, harassment and spying also come from governments. In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has treated the independent press as a personal enemy. Many journalists at the digital news site El Faro have had to go into exile after threats of physical and legal violence. At least 22 journalists in that country have been spied on with Pegasus.
The same threats and violence are happening in Guatemala and Honduras. Since August, Rubén Zamora, editor-in-chief of El Periódico, one of the most important Guatemalan newspapers, has been imprisoned by the government of President Alejandro Giammattei. The newspaper ceased printing in November. Even more stable Central American countries, such as Costa Rica, elected a populist president who regularly attacks La Nación, the country’s most important media group.
In Brazil, attacks against journalists have grown during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro. He and his family carry them out frequently, especially in social media. Meanwhile, fake news and propaganda overflow the public conversation. The future president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will have to deal with this legacy, but he also has a long history of confrontation with the critical press.
This same physical, digital, and legal violence can be seen almost everywhere in the region. That’s alongside a financial crisis in the news industry and a lack of real business models (that wouldn’t be dependent on international grants or government advertising) to keep independent media newsrooms afloat. The situation seems desperate.
Journalists have never had good salaries in the Americas, but in recent years, their precariousness has grown. The new generations of journalists have salaries at which it is very difficult not only to do their work with dignity, but even to live adequately.
Being a journalist is becoming a heroic profession in the Americas, and neither governments nor society is acting to protect the watchdogs of democracy. Despite all this, great investigations continue to be carried out. And even under threat, in exile or in jail, Latin American journalists have continued bringing to light the corruption and lies of those in power. In 2023, it’s time to support them, so that next year’s predictions can be different for the entire region.
Mael Vallejo is a Mexican journalist and senior editor of Post Opinión at The Washington Post.
David Skok Renewed interest in human-powered reporting
Felicitas Carrique and Becca Aaronson News product goes from trend to standard
Bill Adair The year of the fact-check (no, really!)
Al Lucca Digital news design gets interesting again
John Davidow A year of intergenerational learning
Ayala Panievsky It’s time for PR for journalism
Moreno Cruz Osório Brazilian journalism turns wounds into action
Eric Nuzum A focus on people instead of power
Jenna Weiss-Berman The economic downturn benefits the podcasting industry. (No, really!)
Brian Moritz Rebuilding the news bundle
Sam Gregory Synthetic media forces us to understand how media gets made
Mael Vallejo More threats to press freedom across the Americas
Jody Brannon We’ll embrace policy remedies
Andrew Losowsky Journalism realizes the replacement for Twitter is not a new Twitter
Ryan Kellett Airline-like loyalty programs try to tie down news readers
Kavya Sukumar Belling the cat: The rise of independent fact-checking at scale
Jessica Clark Open discourse retrenches
Nikki Usher This is the year of the RSS reader. (Really!)
Nicholas Thompson The year AI actually changes the media business
Cari Nazeer and Emily Goligoski News organizations step up their support for caregivers
Christoph Mergerson The rot at the core of the news business
Gabe Schneider Well-funded journalism leaders stop making disparate pay
Andrew Donohue We’ll find out whether journalism can, indeed, save democracy
Pia Frey Publishers start polling their users at scale
Rachel Glickhouse Humanizing newsrooms will be a badge of honor
Sue Cross Thinking and acting collectively to save the news
Ben Werdmuller The internet is up for grabs again
Michael Schudson Journalism gets more and more difficult
Susan Chira Equipping local journalism
Josh Schwartz The AI spammers are coming
Jim Friedlich Local journalism steps up to the challenge of civic coverage
Amethyst J. Davis The slight of the great contraction
Mario García More newsrooms go mobile-first
Leezel Tanglao Community partnerships drive better reporting
Ståle Grut Your newsroom experiences a Midjourney-gate, too
Tre'vell Anderson Continued culpability in anti-trans campaigns
Gordon Crovitz The year advertisers stop funding misinformation
Laxmi Parthasarathy Unlocking the silent demand for international journalism
Tim Carmody Newsletter writers need a new ethics
Janet Haven ChatGPT and the future of trust
Molly de Aguiar and Mandy Van Deven Narrative change trend brings new money to journalism
Stefanie Murray The year U.S. media stops screwing around and becomes pro-democracy
Anthony Nadler Confronting media gerrymandering
Simon Galperin Philanthropy stops investing in corporate media
Walter Frick Journalists wake up to the power of prediction markets
Surya Mattu Data journalists learn from photojournalists
Alexandra Svokos Working harder to reach audiences where they are
Jaden Amos TikTok personality journalists continue to rise
Joanne McNeil Facebook and the media kiss and make up
Ariel Zirulnick Journalism doubles down on user needs
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Well-being will become a core tenet of journalism
Upasna Gautam Technology that performs at the speed of news
Jonas Kaiser Rejecting the “free speech” frame
Barbara Raab More journalism funders will take more risks
Sam Guzik AI will start fact-checking. We may not like the results.
Sue Schardt Toward a new poetics of journalism
Kaitlyn Wells We’ll prioritize media literacy for children
Larry Ryckman We’ll work together with our competitors
Brian Stelter Finding new ways to reach news avoiders
Don Day The news about the news is bad. I’m optimistic.
Karina Montoya More reporters on the antitrust beat
S. Mitra Kalita “Everything sucks. Good luck to you.”
Alex Sujong Laughlin Credit where it’s due
Jessica Maddox Journalists keep getting manipulated by internet culture
Cindy Royal Yes, journalists should learn to code, but…
Michael W. Wagner The backlash against pro-democracy reporting is coming
Mariana Moura Santos A woman who speaks is a woman who changes the world
Burt Herman The year AI truly arrives — and with it the reckoning
Cassandra Etienne Local news fellowships will help fight newsroom inequities
Raney Aronson-Rath Journalists will band together to fight intimidation
Mar Cabra The inevitable mental health revolution
Nicholas Diakopoulos Journalists productively harness generative AI tools
Eric Ulken Generative AI brings wrongness at scale
Sarah Alvarez Dream bigger or lose out
Khushbu Shah Global reporting will suffer
Anika Anand Independent news businesses lead the way on healthy work cultures
Julia Beizer News fatigue shows us a clear path forward
Doris Truong Workers demand to be paid what the job is worth
Elite Truong In platform collapse, an opportunity for community
Sumi Aggarwal Smart newsrooms will prioritize board development
Delano Massey The industry shakes its imposter syndrome
Wilson Liévano Diaspora journalism takes the next step
Basile Simon Towards supporting criminal accountability
Kerri Hoffman Podcasting goes local
Amy Schmitz Weiss Journalism education faces a crossroads
Nicholas Jackson There will be launches — and we’ll keep doing the work
AX Mina Journalism in a time of permacrisis
Errin Haines Journalists on the campaign trail mend trust with the public
Joni Deutsch Podcast collaboration — not competition — breeds excellence
Megan Lucero and Shirish Kulkarni The future of journalism is not you
Martina Efeyini Talk to Gen Z. They’re the experts of Gen Z.
Rodney Gibbs Recalibrating how we work apart
Alexandra Borchardt The year of the climate journalism strategy
Paul Cheung More news organizations will realize they are in the business of impact, not eyeballs
David Cohn AI made this prediction
Emma Carew Grovum The year to resist forgetting about diversity
Jennifer Brandel AI couldn’t care less. Journalists will care more.
Ryan Nave Citizen journalism, but make it equitable
Ryan Gantz “I’m sorry, but I’m a large language model”
Matt Rasnic More newsroom workers turn to organized labor
Eric Thurm Journalists think of themselves as workers
Lisa Heyamoto The independent news industry gets a roadmap to sustainability
Jim VandeHei There is no “peak newsletter”
Peter Sterne AI enters the newsroom
Victor Pickard The year journalism and capitalism finally divorce
Jennifer Choi and Jonathan Jackson Funders finally bet on next-generation news entrepreneurs
Jesse Holcomb Buffeted, whipped, bullied, pulled
Daniel Trielli Trust in news will continue to fall. Just look at Brazil.
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau More of the same
Joe Amditis AI throws a lifeline to local publishers
Eric Holthaus As social media fragments, marginalized voices gain more power
Julia Angwin Democracies will get serious about saving journalism
Peter Bale Rising costs force more digital innovation
Bill Grueskin Local news will come to rely on AI
Anna Nirmala News organizations get new structures
Jarrad Henderson Video editing will help people understand the media they consume
Esther Kezia Thorpe Subscription pressures force product innovation
Janelle Salanga Journalists work from a place of harm reduction
Dominic-Madori Davis Everyone finally realizes the need for diverse voices in tech reporting
Cory Bergman The AI content flood
Anita Varma Journalism prioritizes the basic need for survival
Laura E. Davis The year we embrace the robots — and ourselves
Sarabeth Berman Nonprofit local news shows that it can scale
Dana Lacey Tech will screw publishers over
A.J. Bauer Covering the right wrong
Shanté Cosme The answer to “quiet quitting” is radical empathy
Sue Robinson Engagement journalism will have to confront a tougher reality
Alan Henry A reckoning with why trust in news is so low
Kathy Lu We need emotionally agile newsroom leaders
Taylor Lorenz The “creator economy” will be astroturfed
Priyanjana Bengani Partisan local news networks will collaborate
Zizi Papacharissi Platforms are over
Kirstin McCudden We’ll codify protection of journalism and newsgathering
Gina Chua The traditional story structure gets deconstructed
Snigdha Sur Newsrooms get nimble in a recession
Jacob L. Nelson Despite it all, people will still want to be journalists
Masuma Ahuja Journalism starts working for and with its communities
Sarah Stonbely Growth in public funding for news and information at the state and local levels
Jakob Moll Journalism startups will think beyond English
Joshua P. Darr Local to live, wire to wither
Christina Shih Shared values move from nice-to-haves to essentials
Hillary Frey Death to the labor-intensive memo for prospective hires
Alex Perry New paths to transparency without Twitter
Emily Nonko Incarcerated reporters get more bylines
Richard Tofel The press might get better at vetting presidential candidates
Kaitlin C. Miller Harassment in journalism won’t get better, but we’ll talk about it more openly
Francesco Zaffarano There is no end of “social media”
Johannes Klingebiel The innovation team, R.I.P.
Mauricio Cabrera It’s no longer about audiences, it’s about communities
Tamar Charney Flux is the new stability
Juleyka Lantigua Newsrooms recognize women of color as the canaries in the coal mine
Danielle K. Brown and Kathleen Searles DEI efforts must consider mental health and online abuse
J. Siguru Wahutu American journalism reckons with its colonialist tendencies
Parker Molloy We’ll reach new heights of moral panic
Mary Walter-Brown and Tristan Loper Mission-driven metrics become our North Star
Dannagal G. Young Stop rewarding elite performances of identity threat