Trump Demands Freedom for Jailed Tycoon, Ignores US Press Under Siege
Donald Trump, noted champion of the free press and staunch defender of journalistic integrity (said no honest person ever), has now publicly urged China's Xi Jinping to free Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong tycoon jailed under national security laws. This, of course, is the same man who repeatedly labeled American journalists 'enemies of the people,' suggested jail for those who published unfavorable
stories, and famously tried to revoke the press credentials of outlets he disliked. (Who could forget his 2018 'fake news awards'?) The irony here is so thick you could carve it. Lai, the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, faces life imprisonment for 'collusion with foreign forces,' a charge many human rights groups condemn as a crackdown on dissent. Yet, Trump's
sudden concern for media freedom in Hong Kong stands in stark contrast to his consistent attacks on the American press, which he often accused of 'treason.' One might wonder if his concern for Lai's freedom would extend to, say, Julian Assange, or even American journalists facing legal battles for exposing government secrets. Apparently, press freedom is only a 'very important issue' when it's
convenient for geopolitical posturing, and not when it's inconveniently close to home.