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Letter: Are freedoms threatened?

Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Will we notice when Freedom of the Press or Freedom of Speech are in danger? 

What might the signals be? Could the signs be belittling, demeaning, threatening or attacking the credibility of long-standing trusted institutions? Could charges of “Fake News” intimidate and reduce candor? Can there really be “alternative facts”? Could restricting news organizations from political rallies, press conferences or meetings with foreign dignitaries damage the flow of information? What signal is sent by cancelling security clearances for people speaking out? Does declaring institutions “Enemy of the People,” when they print stories not favorable to the administration, have chilling effects?

How do these behaviors bode for openness and transparency of a democracy?  

Timothy Snyder, a survivor of Hitler’s Germany and author of “On Tyranny-Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century,” writes, “The F...

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