Trump attacks 'New York Times' for reporting security issues on Air Force One
The Justice department summons journalists from the North American newspaper to testify who had reported on the president's plane, which was a gift from Qatar
BarcelonaDonald Trump has once again unreservedly attacked freedom of the press in the United States. The Justice Department of his administration has summoned several journalists from the American newspaper TheNew York Times after they published a news report that informed about the security problems of Air Force One, the plane that the North American president uses to travel and which was a donation from Qatar. Journalists will have to appear on Wednesday before a grand jury to testify "in relation to an alleged violation of federal criminal law".
The outlet, which has branded the action as "brazen," believes the aim of the subpoenas is to intimidate journalists and compromise their independence. In fact, federal agents showed up at the reporters' homes to hand-deliver the court summons. A gesture that the lawyer for the New York Times, David McCraw, believes it should "worry any American who believes in the Constitution and freedom of the press": "Our journalists report the facts and defend the right of American citizens to know how their government works and how taxpayer dollars are being used," says the statement released Friday evening by McCraw, who also insists that the government's goal is "to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists so they do not do their job".
Without missile defense
The journalists summoned to testify reported on Wednesday that the United States Secret Service had asked Donald Trump to fly on the old Air Force One to return to Washington from the NATO summit – which was held in Ankara – instead of the one Qatar gifted him when he took office. Several experts claimed in their articles that the new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8 of luxury estimated at 400 million dollars, did not meet the security requirements that previous aircraft had, such as missile protection. Following recent threats from Iran, intelligence services reportedly forced the president to travel in an old model "for security reasons," although Trump justified it by saying he was doing it "out of nostalgia."
The episode adds to a long list of threats, intimidations, and blatant interventions by his administration against freedom of the press. The cancellation of the late night show from comedian Jimmy Kimmel on the network ABC, the cuts to dismantle public television, the multi-million dollar lawsuits against the country's main newspapers or the threats to media for its coverage of the war in Iran are just a sample of the authoritarian drift that the North American administration has taken against the freedom of the press since Donald Trump arrived at the White House.
