Public Knowledge and Expertise Under Authoritarian Siege: A Defense of Academic Freedom from Digital Journalism Studies

This article addresses the growing global assault on academic free-dom—a cornerstone of democratic societies now under increasingthreat from authoritarian regimes. It highlights a global decline inthat freedom since its peak 20 years ago, focusing on the UnitedStates in 2025 to illustrate rapidly escalating academic silencing, evenin a country with well-established democratic freedoms and institu-tions. Drawing on the collective expertise of international scholars indigital journalism studies (DJS)—a field situated at the crossroads ofvulnerable institutions—and informed by anonymous reports fromU.S.-based academics as well as the wider academic literature, thiscommentary examines the impact of political interference, censorship,and self-censorship in academia. It argues that DJS as a field mustdevelop approaches that actively resist authoritarianism and upholdfreedom of expression and inquiry. The commentary concludes witha normative framework for doing this, proposing a three-prongedapproach to defending the larger field, the scholarship within it, andthe wellbeing of individual scholars of digital journalism studies.