Internet Press Freedom Conference

Top State Department Official Declares US Full Support to Internet Press Freedom Globally
Several World-Renown Experts Discuss How the Internet Can Promote Press Freedom

By Sean Alfano

New York City, June 30, 2003 -- A leading member of the U.S. Department of State delivered the luncheon address during the first full day of the “Press Freedom on the Internet” conference Friday in Manhattan.

The speaker, Dr. Kim R. Holmes, Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, praised the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) for protecting and promoting free press throughout the world. Holmes said the WPFC’s work was “vital to those who lack human rights and fundamental freedoms --people who rely on the media to be their voice as much as to tell their story.”

Dr. Kim R. Holmes, Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs, expressed his government's full support to Internet press freedom globally.

But Holmes, who was introduced by Shashi Tharoor, United Nation’s Undersecretary for Communications and Public Information, was quick to point out that freedom of the press, especially in cyberspace, was under constant threat.

Shashi Tharoor, United Nation's Undersecretary for Communications and Public Information, introduced Dr. Holmes to the audience.

“Press freedom on and off the Internet is at risk in too many countries around the world,” he said.

Holmes mentioned news outlets that were shut down by their respective governments in China and Russia, and France’s attempt to place a firewall on Yahoo’s web site in order to keep certain information inaccessible.

The address highlighted the importance of the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), which will be held in December in Geneva, Switzerland.

For Holmes and his department, which is responsible for relations with international organizations, the meeting offered a chance for the United States to help shape how press freedom is defined globally.

“Our task is to ensure that the summit achieves concrete outcomes that are fully consistent with freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” Holmes said.

In a preparatory meeting for the WSIS last March, language such as “balancing information flows and respect for national sovereignty” was proffered by some nations, said Holmes.

“Such phrases could be interpreted as justification for censorship,” he concluded.

Therefore, Holmes emphasized, free press advocates must remain “vigilant” in order to repel threats to free speech.

“No nation can become democratic or be economically free if its citizens cannot openly and freely express their opinions,” Holmes said. “And no nation is truly free if its media are not allowed to provide independent and objective information.”

Holmes fielded some questions, including one by the former managing editor of The New York Times, Seymour Topping, who asked if the United States’ concern with fighting terrorism would lead to US support of potentially restrictive measures against media at the WSIS.

“A balance between liberty and security has been particularly acute since 9-11,” he answered. “There is an interest in cyber-security [but] protecting people physically also requires protecting the freedoms on which this country was founded.”

When asked after the lecture what he thought of Holmes’ answer, Topping called it “forceful and categorical.”

“The big question is,” Topping continued, “where will be the balance? Where will the weight fall?” 

Immediately following Holmes, address, a panel of journalists spoke about how the Internet could promote press freedom. Participants included, Timothy Balding General of the World Association of Newspapers; Tala Dowlatshahi, US Representative of Reporters without Borders; Mick Stern, Webmaster of the Committee to Protect Journalists; Ann Nelson, of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and Bob Carty, of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Adam Clayton Powell III, journalism professor at the University of Southern California, moderated the discussion.

Balding told the audience about the success of RAP 21 (an acronym for the French phrase meaning African Press Network for the 21st Century). In addition to giving African journalists an outlet to share their stories, RAP 21 is heavily used to exchange ideas. For instance, Balding said strategies on how to cover stories about AIDS are frequently exchanged via RAP 21.

“AIDS is barely covered,” Balding said of African journalists, “because they don’t know how to do it.” He added that RAP 21 “has been totally embraced by the journalist community, to whom it is a window to the world.”

More training was frequently cited by the panelists as what journalists in developing nations needed most, especially in countries with governments hostile to the press.

“Accurate reporting is more vital than ever,” Dowlatshahi said.

Carty agreed, saying that journalists who are in trouble with their government cannot afford to write stories that are the slightest bit inaccurate.

“It’s a lot easier to defend somebody who hasn’t screwed it up first,” Carty said of persecuted journalists, and added that it was necessary to cultivate a “culture of free expression” via Internet networks.

He said more campaigning for worldwide press freedoms could benefit from the speed and reach of the Internet, thus, emboldening endangered journalists to defend their rights.

“We need people on the ground who will stand toe-to-toe with their officials,” Carty said, “and help promote press freedom on the spot.”

However, the panelists were quick to share stories of journalists fleeing for their lives and imprisoned writers. Balding spoke of a Liberian editor exiled in Ghana, Stern recalled a Tunisian student recently jailed for writing on his web site asking whether his government was “a kingdom, a republic, a prison or a zoo”; and Dowlatshahi told of a Chinese reporter thrown in jail after writing a story about government officials selling anti-tuberculosis drugs, previously donated by the Red Cross.

Ann Nelson said journalists who enjoyed generous press freedoms still have more work to do for their less fortunate colleagues.

“The goal,” Nelson said, “is to not only have us act on their behalf, but to have them become our partners.”

One of Nelson’s suggestions was to incorporate ideas about free speech and press into other areas of education, such as law and business schools.

“This would not only deepen the well of information, but broaden the access of information,” Nelson said.

The basis of this discussion centered on the support for Article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The document states: “Everyone has the right to the freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”