activities

WPFC ACTIVITY REPORT — 2007

Activities of Mark Bench, Executive Director:

Mark Bench met in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in mid-January with numerous media (radio, TV, newspaper and magazine) contacts to discuss press freedom issues in that country. Met with former president of International Association of Broadcasting Rafael Guerrero Valenzuela, senior radio legend in Ecuador.
Bench continued to serve on the Executive Committee of the United States National Commission for UNESCO and as chair of the Information and Communication Committee, meeting in teleconferencing once a month. In October, Mark served as a member of the official delegation, working with WPFC’s European Representative, Ronald Koven, to assure that appropriate language be added to a Cuban draft resolution at the UNESCO general conference to make it acceptable.
The annual meeting of the US National Commission for UNESCO met at Georgetown University in May where Bench participated on a panel. WPFC was invited to serve another three years as a member of the US National Commission for UNESCO.
Bench served together with Bob Carty of Canadian Journalists for Freedom of Expression (CJFE) to develop a governance policy of the International Freedom of Expression eXchange, IFEX headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The policy received unanimous support at IFEX the general conference held in Montevideo, Uruguay in October.
In February, Bench participated in the World Press Freedom Committee (in conjunction with UNESCO, World Association of Newspapers, World Editors’ Forum) Conference in Paris: New Media, the Press Freedom Dimension, Challenges and Opportunities of New Media for Press Freedom. The well-attended conference was financed by the Knight Foundation. WPFC’s European Representative, Ronald Koven, was the genesis of the conference as well as the conference coordinator. (Click here for the conference publication)
Throughout the year, Bench participated with the Tunisian Monitoring Group (TMG) of IFEX, putting pressure on the Ben Ali government to allow press freedom within that Maghreb country. The TMG and WPFC have been pressuring the Tunisian government for more than three years. In press freedom rankings, Tunisia is ranked 179th (tied with Syria) of 195 countries listed by the 2007 Freedom House study.
WPFC held the Andersen-Ottaway Lecture in Washington, DC at the National Press Club, with Joergen Ejboel as featured speaker, with participation by Flemming Rose, one of his key editors. Mr. Ejboel is the chairman of the board of the holding company that owns Jyllands-Posten, the Danish daily that first published the Mohammed cartoons. Flemming Rose was the editor of Jyllands-Posten who made the decision to run the cartoons. (Click here for the lecture booklet)
At the Andersen-Ottaway Lecture in April, the publication of “It’s a Crime, How Insult Laws Stifle Press Freedom, a 2006 Status Report,” edited by Marilyn Greene, was announced. This 306 page publication was supported by the Jyllands-Posten Fond, Ritzau Bureau I/S, Politiken-Fonden and TV 2/Danmark, all of Denmark. Printed copies are available by emailing our office manager, Ms. Mary-Esther Dattatreyan, at freepress@wpfc.org.
Bench updated WPFC’s accreditation as an NGO to ECOSOC at the United Nations, and covered the United Nations Committee on Information in the U.N.’s New York City headquarters.
Bench attended a lecture in New York City by Anthony Lewis and others, “Are Journalists Privileged?” at the Benjamin Cardoso Law School at Yeshiva University.
Bench and Ronald Koven participated in the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day celebration in Medellin, Colombia; the annual Press Freedom Award was given posthumously to gunned-down Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Mr. Koven represented former chairman of WPFC, James H. Ottaway, Jr. in announcing the Ottaway Foundation financing of the Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Award in coming years.
Members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations met in May in Medellin (in conjunction with the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day commemoration) for its first meeting of 2007, hosted by the Inter American Press Association. The second meeting of the Coordinating Committee was hosted in early December by the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York City. Mr. Kiyo Akasaka, U.N. Under Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, was the featured speaker.
Bench met twice during the year with the Multi-Stakeholder group which involves several Internet companies, responsible investor corporations, telecoms and numerous human rights and other NGOs in endeavoring to develop a “seal of approval” for the Internet companies’ behavior abroad in an effort to prevent further jailing of journalists (such as Shin Tao in China).
Bench participated in November in a panel at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro, together with Leslie Harris of the Center for Democracy and Technology, Robert Faris of Harvard Law School/Open Net Initiative, and others. The IGF is a U.N. follow-up of the two World Summits on the Information Society held in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005), allowing countries and other stakeholders to discuss their issues.
During the IGF in Rio in November, Mark attended a panel sponsored by the Internet Society of China on the subject of Harmoniousness on the Internet. The panelists presented some 10 new organizations to which Chinese Internet users could report unwanted emails, spam and cybercrimes. Following the presentation, there was time for questions and answers. Mark raised the issues of well-documented Chinese government censorship of Web sites and blogs and the jailing of journalists. The panelists expressed that they are not government representatives and hence could not comment. Mark suggested that they are Chinese citizens and that surely they had an opinion they could share. They assured all that they had no opinion on the subject. (Click here to see a blog coverage of the panel)
Bench met in Montevideo, Uruguay, in conjunction with the IFEX general conference in October, with Uruguayan Broadcasters Association officials as well as the refurbished offices of the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB), and the Director General of the IAB, Dr. Hector Oscar Amengual.
Bench made several TV, radio and newspaper interviews in Caracas, Venezuela in November on the subject of press freedom and freedom of expression, following the government’s illegal non-renewal of the license of RCTV, a station whose editorial policy was in opposition to the positions of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Mark visited the media in the capital and one interior city.
Bench had dinner in New York City with the U.N. ambassadors from Poland and Honduras, both staunch supporters of press freedom.
Bench met, together with Ronald Koven, WPFC European Representative, and Richard Winfield, WPFC Chair, with leaders of Human Rights in China, World Association of Newspapers, Committee to Protect Journalists and Reports Without Borders to plan the Knight Foundation-funded Conference in Paris in April of 2008. The conference will be co-sponsored by, among others, all of the 9 members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations.
Dana Bullen, WPFC’s Executive Director for 17 years, and Senior Adviser and member of the Executive Committee of WPFC, passed away June 15, 2007. His obituary appeared in numerous newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Activities of Javier Sierra, Projects Director:

January

Northern Cyprus: We made a $2,000 Fund Against Censorship grant to editor Dogan Harman to support his fight against a criminal defamation suit filed by that enclave’s attorney general. Weeks later, the Supreme Court revoked the law used to indict Harman retroactively, which freed him of any charges. The attorney general appealed the decision.
Morocco: We joined the international wave of condemnation of the unjust judicial harassment Moroccan authorities directed at editor-in-chief and publisher of Nichane magazine, Driss Ksikes, one of his journalists, Sanaa Al-Aji, and the publication itself. Our efforts were not enough as both journalists were sentenced to three years in prison for committing “offenses against the Islamic religion” in a series of jokes and cartoons published by their magazine. Their sentences were suspended. The magazine was back on the new-stands by mid-March.
Starting in January, I continued assisting Marilyn Greene in her project to monitor criminal defamation and insult laws developments throughout the world.
I began working in January with the new OAS’s Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression Dr. Ignacio Alvarez to coordinate efforts to eliminate or reform criminal defamation and insult laws in the region. Reportedly, Alvarez will step down sometime in 2008. In any instance, I am planning to continue this fruitful relationship with the Office of the Rapporteur.

February

Panama: We sent a letter of concern to President Martín Torrijos about a very toxic reform of the country’s criminal code being debated in the Chamber of Deputies. The bill included articles dealing with “crimes against the sacredness of secret and the right to privacy” and “crimes against the State’s international identity.” Clearly, these were insult laws disguised in euphemistic language that would have set Panama back to recent times when insult laws where endemic in its legislation. A month later, Torrijos turned the bill back to the Chamber of Deputies objecting to several articles, including the ones we highlighted in our letter.

March

Spain: We sent a protest letter to the Spanish opposition party, Partido Popular (PP), after its leader announced a boycott against a publishing conglomerate, PRISA, whose president harshly criticized PP. The letter made the front page of Spain’s largest newspaper, El País, and eventually had a strong influence on the PP’s reconsidering its position.

April

Venezuela: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights invited me, and I accepted to serve as an expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the Globovision vs. Venezuela case. My testimony as WPFC’s Projects Director will take place at the Court in San José, Costa Rica, sometime this year.
Mexico: We sent a congratulatory letter to President Felipe Calderón on his signing into law a far-reaching decriminalization of defamation bill. The initiative was triggered by an even more liberal law, the one passed a year earlier by the government of the Federal District of Mexico City, which we supported from its very early stages.

May

Spain: On May 3, Press Freedom Day, we submitted an adapted version of our amicus brief before the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Spanish journalist José Luis Gutiérrez. Six other members of the Coordinating Committee joined us in this effort. We have been supporting him since 2004 in his fight against a civil insult sentence that was passed down in 1995. Once he exhausted all domestic recourse, we encouraged him to take his case to the European Court, and he did.
Andersen-Ottaway Lecture: I provided the photographic coverage of the 2007 Andersen-Ottaway Lecture, which featured Danish publisher Joergen Ejboel. I also took care of the selection and retouching of the photos, and of supplying the captions.
Azerbaijan: We sent a protest letter to President Ilham Aliyev about the alarmingly high number of incarcerated journalists in that country. We focused on the cases of Rovshen Kebirli, editor of the Mukhalifet magazine, and Yashar Agazade, a reporter, who were sentenced on criminal defamation charges. We also made a $3,000 Fund Against Censorship grant for the legal defense of both journalists.
Ecuador: In a letter of protest we denounced the criminal defamation proceedings initiated by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa against the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the La Hora newspaper, Francisco Vivanco. The legal action followed an editorial written by Vivanco, titled “Official Vandalism,” in which he accused Correa of ruling through “riots, stones and sticks.” Correa hit back with the suit and demands of preventive imprisonment of Vivanco.
UNESCO Seminar: I attended a UNESCO seminar, here in Washington, DC featuring the organization’s Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, Dr. Waheed Khan. Dr. Khan gave us an extensive review of his office’s recent activities with a special focus on press freedom and freedom of expression.

June

Venezuela: WPFC joined our colleagues in the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations by signing a protest letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez after his government’s decision not to renew the broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). I translated the letter into Spanish.
Turkey: We sent a protest letter to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the insult proceedings against editor Arat Dink, who was accused of “insulting the Turkish identity” in an interview published by Reuters. Arat committed the same “sin” his father, Hrant, did, recognizing the Armenian genocide. Eventually, Arat received a suspended one-year prison sentence. He later revealed plans to leave Turkey ostensibly to avoid ending up like his father, who was murdered by Turkish nationalists.

July

Peru: We sent a letter of protest to Peru’s President Alan García about his country’s highest cultural institution’s censoring political cartoonist Piero Quijano. Three of Quijano’s cartoons that were to be featured in an exhibit, including one lampooning García himself, were removed from the show without the artist’s permission. We identified two public officials as the culprits of this act of censorship and demanded their immediate dismissal.
Tunisia: We sent a strong letter to President Ben Ali about the criminal defamation proceedings against editor Omar Mestiri and his online publication Kalima. The charges were brought by a lawyer with allegedly strong ties to those in power who felt insulted by a Kalima article. Mestiri faced a two-year prison sentence had he been found guilty. Fortunately, he was eventually acquitted of all charges, in a rare press freedom victory in Tunisia.
ICFJ Panel Discussion: Upon the invitation of the International Center for Journalists, I participated in a panel discussion about press freedom in Latin America. The event was simulcast live to both Managua, Nicaragua, and Guadalajara, Mexico. A total of some 30 journalists were in attendance in those cities plus the live studio audience in Washington, DC. I shared the panel with two prestigious American journalists, James Breiner, of the Baltimore Sun and an expert in Bolivian media, and Peter Eisner, Deputy Foreign Editor of the Washington Post, who has covered Latin American events for decades.

August

Knight Foundation Grantees Dinner: I attended this annual event where the foundation thanks its grantees for the work done and also for them to share their experiences with one another. I was given the opportunity to brag about WPFC’s work in different fronts. I also had the opportunity to meet a very interesting group of people, including Tom Blanton, Executive Director of the National Security Archive, which does lots of FOIA work, both nationally and internationally, and Debra Gersh Hernandez, Coordinator for the Sunshine Week Your Right to Know, who showed eagerness to work with us on transparency issues.
Inquiry by the State Department: Eric Green, a staff writer for the State Department, wrote to us asking several questions about the state of insult laws throughout the world. I answered all of them, and he included some of my quotes and comments in an article published on the Department’s website.

September

Indonesia: We got involved in a blatant case of illegal spying on a journalist in Indonesia. We sent a protest letter to the National Chief of Police, whose organization, in cooperation with a telecom, illegally leaked cell phone records belonging to reporter Metta Dharmasaputra of Tempo Magazine. The retaliatory measure came in response to the publishing of one of Dharmasaputra’s articles uncovering a corruption scheme by the country’s largest telecommunications company. Dharmasaputra was called to testify in the ensuing investigation of the scandal, but no apologies were issued by the chief of police or the telecom.

October

India: We joined forces with the International Press Institute by sending a protest letter to the Secretary General of the Indian Supreme Court rejecting the sentencing of two editors, a cartoonist and the publisher of the Midday newspaper for alleged contempt of court stemming from a series of investigative reports. The reports uncovered an alleged corruption plot involving a magistrate of the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, in a blatant conflict of interest, upheld the convictions, although it allowed for another appeal to be heard in court on Jan. 16.
Argentina and the IACHR: We announced the submission of an amicus curiae brief, which I helped our General Counsel, Kevin Goldberg, update for this case, on behalf of Argentinean journalist Eduardo Kimel, whose criminal defamation case finally made it all the way to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Upon the recommendation of Special Rapporteur Ignacio Alvarez, we decided to revisit this case, which we first supported back in 2001, because of its strong potential to trigger historic reforms in Argentina and the region. Should the Court rule for Kimel, Argentina may very well be forced to decriminalize its defamation laws, a move that we hope would have a domino effect on other Latin American countries.

November

Venezuela: I assisted Mark Bench in his preparations for his Venezuela mission, which included meetings with representatives of several media outlets. My assistance included an analysis of a Instituto Prensa y Sociedad survey on the dismal state of the media in that country. I recommended that Mark emphasized three subjects: increased invocation of criminal defamation laws against journalists, self-censorship creeping up throughout the Venezuelan media, and some sectors of the media being accused of being active participants in the coup against President Chavez, and how he uses this subject as an excuse to attack press freedom in Venezuela.
Tunisia Conference: I attended a conference on Tunisian politics organized by the Georgetown University’s Law Center in Washington, DC. The conference focused on the abusive practices of the government of President Ben Ali and their constant harassment of the country’s independent media. I had the privilege to meet some of Ben Ali’s most frequent victims, such as editor Omar Mestiri, journalist Kamel Labidi, former President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights Moncef Marzouki, and President of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Media Khalija Cherif.
Criteria of a Free Press: I translated WPFC’s Criteria of a Free Press into Spanish.

December

Norway Funding: After many months of research and contacts with Norwegian officials, we finally sent a proposal for funding to that country’s Section for Human Rights and Democracy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
OSI Funding: I have also been involved in reporting on our efforts to the Open Society Institute in view of our recent anti-criminal defamation successes, especially the one in Andalusia, Spain.
Spain: We sent a letter to the president of the Andalusian autonomous government Manuel Chaves supporting Francisco Rosell, editor-in-chief of El Mundo Andalusian Edition, and his chief copy editor, Javier Caraballo, who faced $3 million in fines and punitive damages on criminal defamation charges. In 2001, El Mundo published an article uncovering an alleged corruption scheme that reached all the way to Chaves’s office. Even though Chaves demanded the maximum penalty, including possible prison sentences, the judge, citing some of the jurisprudence mentioned in our letter, ruled for the defendants acquitting them of all charges. Rosell credited us calling our intervention “fundamental” for the final outcome.

Activities of Raymond Louw, African Representative:

Jan. 21-14: Bali, Indonesia: UNESCO and Global Peace Forum of Bali, Indonesia, held a Power of Peace conference aimed at building peace through communication and information. Delivered a paper on how South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission which dealt with human rights violations and other atrocities during the apartheid regime had, through wide publication of its proceedings and thus spreading information of what had happened, contributed to a peaceful resolution of SA’s transfer of power.
Feb. 8: Johannesburg: Attended meeting of Print Media of South Africa; discussed “war” training for journalists entering conflict areas, a situation developing for SA journalists as SA raises contribution to peace-keeping forces in Africa.
Feb. 9-10: Cape Town: Attended council meeting of SA National Editors’ Forum where inroads on media freedom were discussed and counter action proposed. The items discussed included amendment to Films and Publications Act which will introduce “classification”, or censorship, of certain news stories; police demands on mobile phone companies to supply records of mobile phone users and the numbers they dialed which journalists fear will open door to authorities gaining access to their confidential sources; and journalists’ dissatisfaction at police restructuring its communications. Protest made at attempt by Mugabe government to strip Zimbabwean publisher in SA of Zimbabwean citizenship.
Feb. 18-20: Nairobi, Kenya: Attended meeting of PEN International on behalf of SA PEN to discuss greater activity in Africa by PEN to counter censorship and to encourage writing and other projects to aid writers.
Feb. 22-23: Malmesbury, near Cape Town: Participant in Goegedacht Trust think tank discussion on situation of the media and how current and impending restrictions will impinge on democracy.
March 9: Johannesburg: Meeting of Press Ombudsman’s administrative body, Founding Bodies Committee, which was renamed Press Council. Emphasis on need to counter increasing government hostility towards this Press self-regulatory mechanism; fears that a statutory body is contemplated.
March 19: Thank tank discussion with Helen Suzman Foundation with Finance Minister main speaker.
March 20: Pretoria: Member of delegation from SA National Editors’ Forum to meet with head of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) about his complaint about media “sensationalizing news and thereby obstructing work of NPA” and desire to be consulted by media before publication of news about NPA.
April 2: Johannesburg: Address to media magazine editors and publishers about attempts by authorities to obstruct media activity and other inroads on Press freedom.
April 5: Johannesburg: Sent joint statement by SA National Editors’ Forum and Print Media SA in support of World Association of Newspapers protest against attempts by International Rugby Board and Australian Football League to impose restrictions on media coverage of the Rugby World Cup and Australian League games. Pointed out that the commercial value of the games that both institutions were claiming to protect had been brought about and built up by the publicity generated by the media.
April 13: Johannesburg: Supported demonstration outside SA Broadcasting Corporation studios against bias in favor of government exhibited in news and current affairs programs by national public broadcaster.
April 15: Durban: Sanef Council meeting: Discussion on rising obstructionism of media by authorities and threat of impending restrictions.
April 21: Johannesburg: Attended special Freedom of Expression Institute meeting to change organization from membership-based body to self-standing institution and to align itself with the resources and relevant institutions at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
April 26: Statutory Inquiry meeting
May 2/3: Cape Town: Attendance at Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs over Films and Publications Amendment Bill and its censorship provisions.
May 11-15: Istanbul, Turkey: Annual Assembly of International Press Institute -- Addressed delegates on media freedom situation in Southern Africa; chaired Press Freedom Subcommittee and submitted several resolutions protesting deterioration of Press freedom in Russia, Somalia, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka and the use of “insult laws” against Spanish editor. They also called for release of imprisoned journalists in Ethiopia, the revision of the Turkish Penal Code of provisions used to persecute journalists and for full access of journalists to Darfur.
May 22: Johannesburg: Outlined SA media situation to Oxford Group conducting survey of political situation in SA.
May 25: Johannesburg: Preliminary meeting at Print Media SA to formulate restructuring of Press Ombudsman self regulatory system to include greater public representation at hearings of Ombudsman, Appeals Panel and administrative structure, which was renamed Press Council.
June 2-6: Cape Town: Attended World Association of Newspapers annual conference. Gave address on pernicious use of insult laws in Africa. Helped WAN issue the Declaration of Table Mountain calling for elimination of “insult laws” in 48 countries in Africa and general review by African countries of laws to remove those that restrict Press freedom. It also called on African Union to include the essential requirement that governments foster a free and independent media as one of the criteria for assessing practice of “good governance” under the Nepad African Peer Review Mechanism.
June 17: Pretoria: Member of delegation from SA National Editors’ Forum that met with President Thabo Mbeki and several cabinet ministers to discuss media complaints about censorship provisions contained in Films and Publications Bill and other legislation restricting the media and government complaints about media intrusions in privacy, inaccuracy and misrepresentation. Follow-up meetings and consultation arranged.
June 22: Johannesburg: Delivered paper to publishers and journalists at African Media Forum workshop on restrictions on SA Press with emphasis on danger of police inquiries requesting cell phone information for journalists and their sources (See Feb 9/10).
July 2-11: Dakar, Senegal: Attended PEN International annual assembly in capacity as Vice-President of SA PEN. Presented the Declaration of Table Mountain (June 2-6) to conference for adoption; endorsed unanimously.
July 26: Johannesburg: Protested at intention of Fifa (Federation of International Football Associations) to seek trademark protection for, certain words and emblems associated with Fife’s 2010 Football World Cup games which it is feared would be a tool to censor the media’s reporting before, during and after games. Similar to attempt by International Rugby Board to censor reporting (April 5).
Aug. 15: Johannesburg: Addressed student journalists gathered by SA Institute of International Affairs about careers in journalism.
Aug. 21: Johannesburg: Attended conference on media challenges in southern Africa convened by Media Institute of Southern Africa/Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa; spoke of media situation in SA and insult laws.
Aug. 21: Johannesburg: Meeting with Minister and officials of Home Affairs Ministry over Films and Publications Bill. Unsatisfactory outcome.
Sept. 2-4: Blantyre, Malawi, attended Media Institute of Southern Africa AGM and presented on Declaration of Table Mountain which was adopted by conference.
Sept. 4: Johannesburg: Addressed Witwatersrand University workshop on media situation in southern Africa, detailing restrictions and contemplated restrictions.
Sept. 4: Pretoria: Presented argument to SA Police Service Protection and Security Service on restrictions impacting on media reporting contained in National Key Points Act.
Sept. 5: Cape Town: Representations to Minister if Presidency and Home Affairs Minister over media objections to Films and Publications Bill.
Sept. 7: Randburg, near Johannesburg: Address to regional and community newspaper journalists about impending legislation likely to restrict Press freedom.
Sept. 8-10: Grahamstown: Highway Africa conference coupled with SA National Editors’ Forum council meeting at which impending restrictive legislation and other threats against the media were discussed, among them threat to ban government advertising from Sunday Times. Also discussion about ruling African National Congress plans to set up media tribunal to usurp function of Press Ombudsman.
Sept. 14/5: Malmesbury, near Cape Town: Contributed to Goegedacht Trust think tank discussion on inroads on democracy by detailing restrictions on media.
Oct. 6: Johannesburg: Judging best legal journalism in print and broadcast media for legal firm.
Oct. 16: Cape Town: Representations to Portfolio Committee on Social Services of National Council of Provinces on implications of Films and Publications Bill (See Feb 9/10). Made request that print media that subscribes to Press Ombudsman system be excluded from legislation with its censorship provisions.
Oct. 17: Cape Town: Part of SA National Editors’ Forum delegation to Deputy Minister of Justice Johnny de Lange requesting a review of legislation carried over from the apartheid era (and before) that restricted the media and conflicted with the media freedom clauses in the Constitution. He agreed to set up a major conference early in 2008.
Nov. 1-2: Kempton Park: In capacity as chairman of Press Council presided at workshop involving all members of the Press Council to hear government views of Press self-regulation and to discuss issues arising from code of conduct, especially for public members.
Nov. 11: Durban: Council meeting of SA National Editors’ Forum where media impending restrictions and ANC plans for media tribunal discussed.
Nov. 20-2: Boksburg: Presentation of paper on manner in which African states undergoing African Peer Review Mechanism processes -- South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda -- had dealt with state of media in their countries in assessing their view of their “good governance”.
In addition throughout the year statements protesting inroads on media freedom by official attempts to prevent reporting certain court cases, obstruction of photographers taking pictures of senior politicians, attempt on life of a tabloid editor, attempt to arrest editor of country’s biggest paper for publication of a story, judicial ban on story about corruption by senior SABC official (lifted by another judge a week later). Also made representations to state inquiry into country’s espionage services not to try to recruit working journalists as spies or to allow spies to pass themselves off as working journalists.
In addition, made numerous appearances on TV programs in SA and Continent wide and gave interviews to local and international radio and news services of media freedom issues as they arose in southern Africa.

Activities of Kevin Goldberg, treasurer and general counsel:

Over the course of 2007, I met quarterly with Ignacio Alvarez, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a part of the Organization of American States. These meetings were used to maintain good relations with the Special Rapporteur’s office and to receive updates regarding important free expression and freedom of the press issues through the Americas.
On Jan. 30, 2007, I represented the World Press Freedom Committee (“WPFC”) at a conference hosted by the United States Department of State in Washington, DC where issues were discussed regarding the relationship between freedom of expression and socially responsible corporate behavior, as well as the impact of each on economic development in the Third World and in China.
As a result of conversations I had with several attendees and speakers at this State Department Conference, I began to discuss with Dunstan Hope of the not-for-profit organization Business for Social Responsibility and with Leslie Harris of the Center for Democracy and Technology, the possibility of WPFC participation in a new “multistakeholder process” geared toward promoting a desired set of free expression principles that will be deemed “socially responsible” behavior followed by corporations. I reviewed and commented on procedures to be followed by participants in this process and, throughout the year, worked with WPFC Chairman Richard Winfield and WPFC Executive Director Mark Bench to state the organization’s position on the series of revised drafts of substantive free expression principles being created by the participating organizations. I also drafted the WPFC’s position regarding the benefits to be gained by corporations which adhere to the guidelines and penalties applied to those which do not.
On Feb. 5, 2007, I sent a memorandum to the Media Law Working Group of the International Senior Lawyers Project proposing that members of that working group serve as consultants to the WPFC to assist in maintaining, updating and improving our amicus brief that seeks the repeal of criminal defamation and insult laws around the world.
On Feb. 8, 2007 I sent a letter under the signature of WPFC Chairman Richard Winfield to all 535 members of Congress asking them to join the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). The letter outlined many of the serious press freedom issues facing journalists around the world, including the continued application of criminal penalties for defamation and insult, the growing regulation of the Internet by totalitarian governments in a manner that censors a free press and the need for nations like the United States to exert political and financial pressure to overcome these restrictive governmental actions.
On May 2, 2007, I represented the World Press Freedom Committee at a conference convened by the Center for International Media Assistance of the National Endowment for Democracy. The conference was held at the United States Capitol and was entitled “The International Role of the Media in Exposing Corruption and Promoting Good Governance”. Several members of the United States Congress spoke at the event, as did several journalists who suffered physical reprisal or criminal prosecution at some point in their careers for their investigative reporting.
On May 3, 2007, I filed the WPFC’s amicus brief on criminal defamation and insult laws in the European Court of Human Rights in support of Spanish journalist Jose Luis Gutierrez, who has exhausted all appeals against his native Spain to overturn his conviction for insulting the Moroccan royal family in a story which was published in 1995 in the now-defunct Spanish newspaper Diario 16. The article discussed the seizure of five tons of hashish hidden in a truck of the Dominios Reales company which belonged to the Moroccan Royal Family then headed by King Hassan II and resulted in the filing of an action under the Spanish civil code by King Hassan II of Morocco and the imposition of stringent compensatory and punitive damages were levied against Mr. Gutierrez, then the editor of the paper, and the reporter who wrote the story. The paper was also required to publish the text of the decision in one of its daily editions.
At the request of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, I filed the WPFC amicus brief on criminal defamation and insult laws in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on October 10, 2007 in the case of Kimel v. Argentina. The case derives from the 1991 the publication of the book “La massacre de San Patricio” (“The St. Patrick’s Massacre”), an exposé by Argentine author Eduardo Kimel of the killings of three priests and two seminary students in Belgrano, Argentina in 1976. Mr. Kimel’s investigation asserted that the judge in the case was negligent in ruling that the military junta had nothing to do with the killings. That judge later pressed defamation charges against Eduardo Kimel, who was sentenced to one year in prison and to pay a $20,000 fine.
Along with Javier Sierra, I attended a meeting on October 24, 2007 with Camilla Rossaak, the First Secretary of Developmental Policy at the Norwegian Embassy, to discuss possible partnership with the Norwegian government in activities to promote freedom of the press as part of that country’s dedication to ending governmental corruption around the globe.
After reading about the World Bank’s new “Communication for Governance and Accountability Program” (“CommGap”), an organization dedicated to promoting the use of communication, including media, in governance reform and promotion of democracy, seeking to accomplish these goals by bringing together people from different aspects of the accountability field (social accountability, media training, activism, legal reform), I sent a letter to Sina Odugbemi, the program director. I then met with Mr. Odugbemi at the World Bank’s offices in Washington, DC on November 12, 2007 to discuss our mutual interest in promoting freedom of the press and democracy and have followed up by formally submitting a request to the World Bank to use the WPFC as a consultant on free press issues.