More than 300 newspapers across the United States on Thursday responded to The Boston Globe’s call to write and publish editorials denouncing President Donald Trump’s ‘‘dirty war against the free press”. Trump has repeatedly referred to the media as the enemy of the American people.

On August 10, Marjorie Pritchard, deputy managing editor for the editorial page of The Boston Globe, said while the views would differ in each editorial, the sentiment would emphasise the importance of a free and independent media.

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The Boston Globe’s editorial on Wednesday said a “sustained assault on the free press” was a center pillar of Trump’s policy. “To label the Free Press as “the enemy of the people” is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries,” The Boston Globe reported.

The New York Times editorial highlighted the need for criticism. “News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes,” the editorial said. “Correcting them is core to our job. But insisting that truths you don’t like are ‘fake news’ is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the ‘enemy of the people’ is dangerous, period.”

Trump reacted to the campaign with tweets on Thursday accusing The Boston Globe of colluding with other papers on free press. “THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country....BUT WE ARE WINNING!” Trump tweeted. “There is nothing that I would want more for our Country than true FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. The fact is that the Press is FREE to write and say anything it wants, but much of what it says is FAKE NEWS, pushing a political agenda or just plain trying to hurt people. HONESTY WINS!”

In February 2017, Trump tweeted that “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people!”