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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.
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