<p class="bodytext">Ever since he took office for a second time, United States President Donald Trump has been threatening and browbeating US institutions to toe his line. While many have bent the knee, the latest in his line of fire is Harvard University. Contrary to the other US universities that have agreed to the demands, the US’ oldest and wealthiest university has refused to comply with demands sent by the Oval Office, which include discontinuing DEI practices, government oversight over its syllabus, and retrospective punishment for protests. On April 15, in continuation of its media crackdown, the White House limited the access of newswire services to the president. If up until now the pool of reporters covering the president was decided by the journalist-run White House Correspondents’ Association, news reports suggest that hereon the White House press secretary will decide – thereby ensuring greater control over the questions asked. An independent academia and a free press are imperative for a healthy democracy. But Trump has been on mission mode to undo the values that legitimised the US' claim as a global superpower: free speech, democracy, and free trade, among others. From a respected global leader, it has fallen to a street bully demanding protection money.</p>.<p class="bodytext">What Trump is doing to US academia and the press must not be seen in isolation. Instances of media rights being curtailed are well-documented around the world. The first line of the report ‘2024 World Press Freedom Index’, by Reporters Without Borders, sums up the problem: ‘Press freedom around the world is being threatened by the very people who should be its guarantors – political authorities.’ The ‘Academic Freedom Index’ developed by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, Sweden, shows that ‘substantial academic freedom declines have taken place in not just autocracies but also in liberal democracies’. V-Dem places India among countries with ‘completely restricted’ academic freedom. In India, academic interference is evident in the setting of school textbook syllabuses, the controversies over the appointments of vice-chancellors, and the way the ruling party at the Centre and its acolytes defamed a premier higher educational institute like the Jawaharlal Nehru University.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Until now, nations that suppressed a free press and controlled academia were called out by global institutions and countries that upheld these values, especially the US. Democracies that fancied muzzling the press and stymying academia had a fear of being ostracised from global high tables. Now, with the US itself joining the freefall, such nations will be emboldened. Thus, Trump’s actions in the US could push back democratic freedoms across the world – and that is cause for concern.</p>
<p class="bodytext">Ever since he took office for a second time, United States President Donald Trump has been threatening and browbeating US institutions to toe his line. While many have bent the knee, the latest in his line of fire is Harvard University. Contrary to the other US universities that have agreed to the demands, the US’ oldest and wealthiest university has refused to comply with demands sent by the Oval Office, which include discontinuing DEI practices, government oversight over its syllabus, and retrospective punishment for protests. On April 15, in continuation of its media crackdown, the White House limited the access of newswire services to the president. If up until now the pool of reporters covering the president was decided by the journalist-run White House Correspondents’ Association, news reports suggest that hereon the White House press secretary will decide – thereby ensuring greater control over the questions asked. An independent academia and a free press are imperative for a healthy democracy. But Trump has been on mission mode to undo the values that legitimised the US' claim as a global superpower: free speech, democracy, and free trade, among others. From a respected global leader, it has fallen to a street bully demanding protection money.</p>.<p class="bodytext">What Trump is doing to US academia and the press must not be seen in isolation. Instances of media rights being curtailed are well-documented around the world. The first line of the report ‘2024 World Press Freedom Index’, by Reporters Without Borders, sums up the problem: ‘Press freedom around the world is being threatened by the very people who should be its guarantors – political authorities.’ The ‘Academic Freedom Index’ developed by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, Sweden, shows that ‘substantial academic freedom declines have taken place in not just autocracies but also in liberal democracies’. V-Dem places India among countries with ‘completely restricted’ academic freedom. In India, academic interference is evident in the setting of school textbook syllabuses, the controversies over the appointments of vice-chancellors, and the way the ruling party at the Centre and its acolytes defamed a premier higher educational institute like the Jawaharlal Nehru University.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Until now, nations that suppressed a free press and controlled academia were called out by global institutions and countries that upheld these values, especially the US. Democracies that fancied muzzling the press and stymying academia had a fear of being ostracised from global high tables. Now, with the US itself joining the freefall, such nations will be emboldened. Thus, Trump’s actions in the US could push back democratic freedoms across the world – and that is cause for concern.</p>
