By: Trokon Wrepue – [email protected]
Source: Deputy Minister of Information- Eugene Fahngon speaking at A National Forum on the Safety of Journalists in Liberia Organized by the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP).
Claim: In 2019 the height of COVID-19 in November, about 25 journalists were killed in the United States.
Verdict: True – there were 25 journalists killed in 2019 in the United States of America that’s according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Those journalists according to CPJ died violently as a result of doing their work.
Claim: In 2020, about 40 of them were also killed.
Verdict: False – At least 30 journalists were killed this year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, with 21 slain as a direct result of their work according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Claim: 110 journalists in the United States arrested or charged 2020/2021.
Verdict: False – At least 117 journalists have been detained or arrested while covering protests across the U.S. in 2020, according to a report released in December 2020 by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a collaborative project of two leading press advocacy organizations.
Claim: In the same 2020, three hundred of them were assaulted, beaten and attacked.
Verdict: True – 300 journalists were assaulted in 2020, the majority by law enforcement, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
