If the activists/journalists/whatever don't want to take the necessary precautions to use computers to talk to people in a way in which they are protected from capable adversaries, then I'm not sure what it is that they are expecting.
I get what your saying but humans are humans, journalists are busy and security is a pain for most people (until they need it).
The threat model really depends and so is too wide for me to make any sweeping statements. Clearly a US journalist working on drone strikes is a different threat model to an democracy activist in Sudan.