INTERNET PRESS FREEDOM CONFERENCE

Opening Session
The AP’s New President and CEO Kicks off the
WPFC’s Press Freedom on the Internet Conference

By Sean J. Alfano

New York City, June 30, 2003 -- Making his first public appearance since becoming the new president and CEO of The Associated Press, Tom Curley opened the “Press Freedom on the Internet” conference Thursday in New York City by highlighting the challenges and the “attacks” The AP faces with regard to Internet reporting.

“The Internet has a lot of issues and concerns,” Curley said. Such issues included unauthorized uses of The AP’s wire services and access to information in countries with restrictive laws against the press.

The three-day conference sponsored by the World Press Freedom Committee and the Communications and Media Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York featured a series of discussions about Internet uses and restrictions.

The conference is also a pre-emptive response to the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will be held in December 2003 and in 2005. Many journalists, lawyers and human rights activists believe the WSIS will lead to greater restrictions in Internet reporting.

Without mentioning names, Curley announced that, “There are legitimate news services ripping us off.”
 
“We’ve got to attack,” Curley said of the publications that use AP content without permission. “It’s just spreading everywhere.”
 
The AP is the world’s largest news organization, providing news to more than 15,000 outlets worldwide in the form of text, photographs, audio and video.

On the topic of expanding The AP’s reach into more countries, Curley sounded equally aggressive.

“We try to get bureaus everywhere,” he said.

Currently, The AP has 242 bureaus in over 120 countries. Curley said that some nations, particularly China and Singapore, limited the number of reporters allowed inside their borders.

Though not pleased with this situation, Curley said the organization worked hard to maintain dialogue with all potential news markets.

“We see The AP as a fair broker and good provider of content,” he said.
 
In addition to ensuring The AP is compensated for delivering the news and gets increasing access for its reporters, Curley spoke about potential regulations facing the transmission of news through the Internet. Because the Internet’s reach is so vast, information delivered by The AP has a greater chance of being censored and being deemed libelous.

Curley emphasized these issues, saying The AP is most concerned with “the notion of access and being responsible for what you publish.”

He said he would fight all attempts by other nations to curtail First Amendment freedoms, but then added, “You do have to be sensitive to the laws of other lands.”

Despite these threats to a free press, Curley was confident and boastful about his organization’s ability to inform the world and cited The AP’s dedication to accurate reporting and breaking news.

Noting the Internet’s capability of sending news almost instantaneously, which makes fact-checking more difficult, Curley said, “Our reporters have the courage not to hit the send key until they get the story right. Getting the word out and the news out is what the AP does best.”

But obstacles to providing and gathering news do not come solely from nations abroad. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US government has kept a watchful eye on the acquisition and transmission of news regarding the war on terrorism.
 
In fact, earlier this year, The AP learned that the FBI intercepted a package mailed from a Philippines-based reporter to their Washington, DC, Bureau. The FBI contended that the package, a lab report, should not be made public.
 
Asked about whether he feared information exchanged by his reporters via the Internet also risked interception by intelligence agencies, Curley said, “You certainly have to be concerned, but so far, no one has done anything to cause us concern.”
 
Then he added, “All this is possible in the Internet era.”