The UN human rights chief has said that Donald Trump’s anti-press rhetoric is “very close to incitement to violence”.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned that the US President’s views would lead to the attack and censoring of journalists.
“We began to see a campaign against the media … that could have potentially, and still can, set in motion a chain of events which could quite easily lead to harm being inflicted on journalists just going about their work and potentially some self-censorship,” said Zeid.
“And in that context, it’s getting very close to incitement to violence.”
Despite Zeid’s warning, only a court can decide if Trump is actually guilty of incitement.
Trump has long been a critic of media, famously calling it the “enemy of the people,”.
“I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the dying newspaper industry,” he wrote. “The failing New York Times and the Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements — and they will never change!” said the US President in a series of anti-media tweets.
The UN human rights chief has also criticised Trump over the treatment of migrant families arrested at the US/Mexican border.
“When language is used in a way that focuses on groups of people who have traditionally suffered a great deal from bigotry and prejudice and chauvinism, it harked back to a period not too long ago in the 20th century when feelings were stoked, directed at a vulnerable group for the sake of political gain,” he said.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, almost 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the border over a six-week period.