India, May 4 -- As the information ecosystem grows more distorted, the threats facing journalism have become both physical and existential, the question is no longer just about protecting press freedom-it is about preserving the very possibility of truth.

On World Press Freedom Day, the world will once again speak of freedom of expression as a universal value-something to be defended, celebrated, and upheld. But for many journalists, this day no longer represents an ideal. It represents a contradiction.

I do not speak about press freedom as an abstract principle. I speak about it as someone who has lived its cost.

The memory of covering the Iraq war in 2003 as an embedded journalist-and the captivity that followed-has never left me. It...