| | |  Editorials | Issues | July 2008 
Hard Times for Press Freedoms
 Marshall Loeb - MarketWatch
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 |  | Anyone who believes in press freedoms had better speak up and act up for them now, or risk losing them. |  | | | |
While the media are under ever tougher economic pressure to produce higher profits, they also face mounting political challenges to protect and preserve their freedoms.
It is difficult, if not impossible, for a country to have a free economy and free markets if it does not simultaneously enjoy freedom of the press. That truth is all the more important now because this is a notably difficult moment in history for the media, a dangerous period not only for newspapers, but also for newsmagazines and many other forms of news media. All of them are under severe and growing pressure - not only from aggrieved and aggressive competitors in the marketplace but also from governments that want to rein in press freedoms of all kinds, just about everywhere.
Anyone who believes in press freedoms had better speak up and act up for them now, or risk losing them.
In many parts of the world, various press groups are beginning to mount their defenses.
Take, for example, the Freedom of the Press Committee of the Overseas Press Club of America, a group of present and past foreign correspondents for U.S. media. (Full disclosure: I have been an OPC board member for many years, and president of the OPC for the past two years.)
Every month, volunteers from the OPC membership send well-documented letters of protest to heads of state of countries that are abusing, censuring and generally degrading the press. It's remarkable and disquieting to see the volume and variety of these guided missives. In November, for example, letters went to Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Finland, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Pakistan and Russia.
There was no lack of abuses to protest. The OPC says that, if it had the resources, it could easily have found twice as many cases to protest and write about.
Here are just a few excerpts from the OPC's Freedom of the Press Committee's reports:
"The OPC told President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan that it joined the world's cry of outrage at his declaration of a state of emergency, suspending Pakistan's constitution, and that the OPC was especially concerned about his suppression of independent reporting of the crisis."
"The OPC also wrote to the Philippines, protesting the 33rd murder of a journalist there since 1992; to Sudan, where the head of the Association of Darfur Journalists has been arrested and held incommunicado at an unknown location since May 14; to Chad, complaining that its new press law increases pressure on the media; and to Cuba, applauding President Raul Castro's signing of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and his release of four dissidents, including two journalists. The OPC added that 22 other journalists still in Cuban jails should also be released immediately."
There's more:
"A recent letter was sent to Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, protesting the continuing persecution of journalists who attempt to cover the country's horrific drug wars. The violence comes both from the narcotics traffickers and from police and soldiers who are either trying to crack down on the traffickers or trying to help them. Our letter commented on two more murders of journalists and a litany of harassment and threats to journalists trying to get the story. Some Mexican media have given up any effort to cover the drug wars, saying that it is simply too dangerous. We can only applaud those who are still on the beat."
"We have written to Zimbabwe, protesting yet again the abuses of journalists trying to report on President Robert Mugabe's escalating tyranny and the country's descent into chaos."
"We have also complained again to China's President Hu Jintao about repression of the media there, especially in light of his promise to ease restrictions as a condition of getting permission to host the Olympics."
"The OPC told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the organization violates its own principles of press freedom in denying U.N. access to journalists carrying Taiwanese passports or working for Taiwanese media. We pointed out that Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly says that 'everyone' has the right to 'seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medium and regardless of frontiers.' We also noted that the declaration says plainly that 'no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.' Yet the U.N. refuses to accredit journalists from any nation not recognized by the General Assembly."
"This letter drew a somewhat disingenuous reply from Kiyo Akasaka, Undersecretary-General for Communications and Public Information. He argued that the policy was not meant to exclude any media or journalists, but merely to ensure that all media 'are held to the same standards and accreditation requirements, and given equal access to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.' He assured us that the U.N. and Mr. Ban 'strongly support and rigorously adhere to Article 19,' as long as the journalists who invoke it are properly accredited."
"This is, of course, gobbledegook; Hu Jintao and Robert Mugabe will say the same of independent journalists trying to cover events in China and Zimbabwe. The whole notion of accrediting or licensing journalists and media is a violation of Article 19, and the OPC will continue to defend it."
These letters give just a taste of what the media is up against around the world. So the struggle for press freedoms continues. We can be sure that it will never grow easier.
Reporter David Englander contributed to this article.
Marshall Loeb, former editor of Fortune, Money, and the Columbia Journalism Review, writes for MarketWatch. |
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