Tara’s
Takes
Iwouldn’t classify running four newspapers in southwest Minnesota dangerous. Danger doesn’t really come into my vocabulary when I head into my day. However, that’s not true for all in journalism.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 129 journalists were killed 2025, setting a new record. I don’t think that’s a record we want to set. At the same time, the record that was broken was set in 2024. Back-to-back years. It’s not like the backto- back state championships we celebrate. No one is putting this on a shirt.
Of course, one-third of the deaths occurred in conflict settings. Those locations aren’t surprising, with Israel continuing to be the top spot for journalist deaths.
While this may not be surprising, the fact that in the last 15 years, military officials have killed 373 journalists and more than 60% of these killings took place in the last three years.
A big part of the trend is simple — the wide decline of the Freedom of the Press. In addition to the killings, a near-record number of journalists were jailed in 2025.
You may be asking yourself, why does that affect me? I live in southwest Minnesota. Stick to writing about your kids, not this.
The problem is, these are kids, or were someone’s kids. These journalists did not just one day wake up and start reporting from a war zone. These are journalists who did start one day in a small newsroom.
This fall, Ben will be attending Iowa State University for sports media and communication. That major falls under the Greely School of Journalism. I was super proud when he was awarded a journalism scholarship based on the work he’s done here for the paper both writing and with the podcast. While he doesn’t want to be a news reporter, the kids in many of his classes probably do.
Right now, the next generation of on-the-frontlines journalists are in college or just graduating. These are the ones who are going to truthfully and ethically report what is really happening in our world. And we need them. We need young journalists who are willing to take on the hard and dangerous parts of journalism.
So while none of the 129 journalists killed in 2025 may not have been from southwest Minnesota, it doesn’t mean someday one of them won’t be.
This is why protecting the freedom of the press is so vitally important. During the increase in ICE presence in Minnesota, journalists were on the front lines reporting, many having to wear helmets to protect themselves and carry milk to flush their eyes when sprayed. Those journalists didn’t set out to have that kind of chaos. They chose a career that was meaningful and they wanted to tell the truth.
Our world will continue to have conflict, both globally and locally. My hope is that in 2026, we don’t have a three-peat of setting a record we don’t want to set.
