Disinformation and conspiracy theories, amplified by social media, are distorting minds at scale. At the same time, the rise of news deprivation—a world in which citizens are either cut off from reliable reporting or simply tune it out—has deepened public confusion and mistrust. This week, we looked at a study that shows nearly half of Switzerland’s population now counts as “news-deprived”.
The very people working to counter this tide, reporters and journalists labouring on the ground to uncover realitly, are increasingly under attack. Each assault on them erodes one of the few remaining defences against manipulation and ignorance.
Geneva-based veteran foreign correspondent Edward Girardet confronts these issues head on in an article: Part I: Trusted Journalism Under Fire.
“Truth,” it is often said, “is the first casualty of war.” For Girardet, who has spent four decades covering conflicts, humanitarian crises and political upheavals, the adage has rarely felt more apt. From Moscow to Washington, autocrats and populists alike are waging a relentless campaign to control the narrative—silencing independent voices, intimidating reporters and flooding the public sphere with disinformation.
Yet the threat to journalism today is not confined to the world’s strongmen. In democracies once proud of their free press, local newsrooms are vanishing, leaving citizens prey to polarisation and propaganda. In Israel, independent reporting on Gaza and the West Bank has become perilous; in the United States, budget cuts and political hostility are eroding the media’s ability to serve the public. Across continents, reporters are harassed, jailed, or killed for bearing witness.
As traditional business models collapse and social media amplifies noise over news, professional journalism faces an existential crisis. The question, Girardet argues, is no longer whether the press can hold power to account, but whether it can survive at all. To read Edward Giradet’s analysis, click here: Part I: Trusted Journalism Under Fire.
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