Amal Clooney has warned that Donald Trump is creating global hostility towards journalists – which is undermining democracy.
The human rights lawyer said there were widespread threats to journalists, and the flames of press distrust were being stoked by the US President.
Ms Clooney, the wife of film star George, was invited by Tory leadership hopeful Jeremy Hunt to speak on media freedom at a conference in London.
She said yesterday: “If we don’t turn things around, democracy will not survive.
“When President Trump describes journalists as ‘enemies of the people’, every journalist around the world is made that bit less safe.”
Ms Clooney’s attack came as BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall compared the recent increase in fake news to the propaganda during the decade where Adolf Hitler came to power.
Lord Hall said: “We are now in the midst of the biggest assault on truth since the 1930s.”