At Time, Sebastian Unger writes of journalists who risk death:
Without the work of these brave people there could be no such thing as democracy or freedom in the world—elections would be stolen, war crimes would be denied, injustices would be hidden. In a world without journalists, leaders like Vladimir Putin could claim whatever self-serving reality they wanted and remain utterly unaccountable for their crimes. Some people in the U.S. have recently taken to calling journalists the “enemy of the people,” but is illuminating to note which world leaders have actually taken this idea to heart and started killing them: Vladimir Putin of Russia, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS (deceased). Accusing journalists—or anyone—of being an enemy of the people is the first step in using violence against them, and no right-minded person should want to have anything to do with such nonsense. The human costs of pursuing the truth are horrific—scores of journalists killed every year, worldwide—but the costs of living in an unfree society are even higher. Just ask the people of Ukraine.