IT DOESN’T TAKE much to be accused of supporting terrorism these days. And that doesn’t just go for student activists. In recent months, dozens of lawmakers and public officials have, without evidence, insinuated that U.S. news outlets provide material support for Hamas. Some even issued thinly veiled threats to prosecute news organizations over those bogus allegations.

According to the latest audit of press freedom by Reporters Without Borders, Italy has tumbled down its international rankings. A crucial factor in its report was the desire of Giorgia Meloni’s radical right government to sell off a state-controlled news agency to a press baron – one who just happens to be an MP in her ruling coalition. But in one of the European Union’s most important member states, as Ms Meloni’s radical right coalition consolidates its grip on power, there are plenty of other reasons to fear for the future of free expression and media impartiality.

As two U.S. philosophers, we feel compelled to bring our experience and perspective to bear on the current crisis in academia and the pressing need for solidarity with those suffering from Israeli brutality in Gaza and campus protesters who seek justice and freedom for Palestinians. In the piece that follows, we each sequentially offer reflections on the nationwide campus protests against the genocide of Palestinians, the ways in which university leadership has used draconian policing tactics to suppress and silence student voices, and the dangerous, problematic and wrong-headed conflation of critiques of the Israeli state with antisemitism. We join these reflections together in solidarity and shared sorrow.