The New Darkness - The Hunt for Journalists and Free Speech Has Begun

It is an event that shakes the backbone of Western press freedom. Karen Attiah, the last Black full-time columnist at the Washington Post, was fired - not for false reporting, not for hate speech, but because she quoted the words of a man who called Black women intellectually inferior. The justification given by her superiors: "unacceptable", "gross misconduct", alleged endangerment of the safety of colleagues. Evidence? None. Conversation? Also none. Attiah herself speaks of a hasty decision, a breach of the standards the paper has always claimed to uphold: journalistic fairness, intellectual integrity, respect for debate. The chronology is disturbing. After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Attiah did not break into celebration but soberly stated that she would not perform false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women, who put academics on watch lists, and who publicly said that Black people were better off in the Jim Crow era. Her words were not a call to violence, but a refusal to join the theater of state-mandated mourning. She spoke of a nation that refuses to address the gun problem and of the hypocrisy of lamenting violence without tackling its causes.

Now she has lost her job - and her dismissal marks the beginning of a wave. The government, led by Stephen Miller and J. D. Vance, has announced a campaign to "dismantle" alleged left-wing networks. Under the banner of public safety, a climate is being created in which dissent is no longer merely fought politically but suffocated institutionally. Those who do not mourn as the state demands are marked. Those who speak uncomfortable truths are discredited. The United States, once a symbol of a free press, is heading toward an era in which journalism is no longer critical oversight of power but a loyalty test. This is more than the dismissal of a columnist. It is a signal flare. If an award-winning journalist who uncovered Jamal Khashoggi's murder can be fired without a hearing simply because she refuses to take part in a cult of veneration around a political martyr, then this is not an isolated incident but a symptom. It is the signal that even major newspapers are willing to bow to political pressure and silence dissenting voices.

Dear @washingtonpost,
I have canceled my subscription. You were once a courageous institution, and it is painful to see how cowardly you have become - precisely now, when we need what you once were more than ever. Take "Democracy Dies in Darkness" off your banner. You have become the darkness. (Screenshot shows: "Thanks for your feedback. We’ve canceled your subscription." - "Thank you for your feedback. We have canceled your subscription.")

After the dismissal of Karen Attiah, a veritable wave of subscription cancellations set in - readers turned their backs on the Washington Post in droves.

For the Western world, this is a dark omen. If the United States - with its Constitution, its First Amendment, its myth of "free speech" - so drastically narrows the space for dissenting voices, Europeans must not delude themselves into thinking they are immune. It is the beginning of a creeping darkness that crawls from the edges into the heart of democracy. And once this darkness has taken hold, it will not stop at Karen Attiah. Then it is up to us to keep the fire of freedom burning.