If a person collects records about the wrongdoings of a government but does not make them public (he may reveal what he knows to a few persons, but has no intention to pass the files to any mass media), and he is then assassinated, we would not see it as a thread to the freedom of speech.
For example, have you heard of the assassination of Georgi Markov by that poisonous umbrella?
Again, ordinary people like me would still have a strong feeling.
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In other words, we are thrilled by two related but not necessarily identical issues: The brutal way of doing away with an irritating existence like a triad society, and the thread to the freedom of speech. The former is definite, while the latter is probable but not proved beyond doubt. My humble opinion is there are so many effective means to restrict the freedom of press (notably by influencing advertisers and selective release of official information) that knife seems a redundant additive to the existing armament. For obvious reasons it doesn't entirely exclude the possibility of using violence to affect the freedom of press - not everything that we do are rational.
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