During the past few decades, Latin American governments’ recurrent attacks against journalists have contributed to the erosion of press freedom in the region and, relatedly, of the quality of democracy. Yet what pushes governments to harass journalists? We argue that governments are more likely to harass journalists when popular support for them drops. Due to the ability of journalists to influence public opinion, governments could perceive the harassment of journalists as a means to punish and silence those individuals who are seen as contributing to their decline in public support or as obstacles to regaining popularity. We test our argument on a sample of Latin American countries observed from 1990 to 2019. We find that declines in governments’ popular support lead to more harassment of journalists. Our research contributes to the debate on the determinants of press freedom and sheds further light on the current decline of democratic quality in Latin America.

中文翻译：

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住口！政府的民众支持和记者骚扰：来自拉丁美洲的证据

在过去的几十年里，拉丁美洲各国政府对记者的一再袭击导致该地区新闻自由受到侵蚀，从而削弱了民主的质量。然而，是什么促使政府骚扰记者呢？我们认为，当民众对记者的支持下降时，政府更有可能骚扰记者。由于记者有影响公众舆论的能力，政府可能会将骚扰记者视为惩罚和压制那些被视为导致公众支持下降或重新获得民众支持的障碍的个人的手段。我们在 1990 年至 2019 年观察的拉丁美洲国家样本中检验了我们的论点。我们发现，政府民众支持率的下降导致记者受到更多骚扰。我们的研究有助于关于新闻自由决定因素的辩论，并进一步揭示拉丁美洲当前民主质量的下降。