Print this article A Palestinian militant speaks to the media during the first-ever joint exercise by Palestinian militant groups in Gaza City, December 29, 2020. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters) The Associated Press’s Hamas office-mates proved it. It’s time to take action to sever the relationship. Freedom of the press around the world is facing a grave new threat. The specter of Western news organizations colluding — through either coercion, ideology, or financial interest — with authoritarian states and non-state actors presents a challenge to American national security and global democracy. When interest, ideology, or intimidation are brought to bear on news organizations, the result is often political and humanitarian disaster. Looking around the world today, we see these forces exerted by major powers such as China and Russia, but also by terror groups, such as Iran-proxy Hamas, which apply the principles of asymmetric warfare to managing one of today’s most important battlefields: the media.