At this point a vast portion of their state is based on fraud to some degree so criminalizing journalism (illegal very illegal they cant do it no matter how much they say so or want to.) is literally just protecting the basis of a lot of their local economy.
They are haemorrhaging money SO bad, they need fraud in extremes to pull in any money at all to keep going even if a lot of it ends up sent over seas, they are at least in their eyes getting a cut and seeing some local spending.
The policies implemented are designed to fail really, so this is the only solution for life support.
Which serves as a double win, since it also drags everyone else down and allow their failed policies designed to drag down the local area, to cause suffering to people outside the local area.
If anyone actually had any desire to fix any of this they would cut ALL funding to states doing any of this. It would all stop pretty quickly if the people in on it for a cut got the bill.
