Press releases & protests

For Immediate Release                                                                              Contact:   Mark Bench, 703.715.9811
                                                                                                                                 embench@wpfc.org

National Geographic Magazine Article Prominently Features WPFC

Reston, VA., Sept. 18, 2008 — The National Geographic Magazine’s October issue prominently features the World Press Freedom Committee in an article about how insult and criminal defamation laws stifle the fundamental rights of free speech and free press throughout the world.

The one-page article, included in the magazine’s Culture section, features nine cases from as many countries where journalists received different levels of punishment for getting too close under the skin on public officials who sought protection behind these laws after their dubious actions were revealed.

“Such laws date to ancient Rome,” reads the article by reporter Marc Silver. “Akin to libel laws but designed to protect the ‘honor’ of public officials, they’re now a political tool. Even if never enforced, they take a toll, says Javier Sierra, who leads a World Press freedom Committee campaign to quash them. The threat of a fine or jail time can ‘scare the hell out of a newspaper’.”

WPFC has been deeply involved in two of the cases mentioned in the article, the José Luis Gutiérrez case in Spain and the Eduardo Yáñez case in Chile. In both instances, public officials used and abused either insult or criminal defamation laws to silence those two journalists. And in both instances, WPFC has fought long fights to eliminate or reform those laws in those countries.

“We are very pleased a publication of the prestige and scope of the National Geographic Magazine has paid attention to an issue that affects journalists in the vast majority of the world’s countries,” said Mark Bench, WPFC Executive Director. “Insult and criminal defamation laws constitute the most effective means of censoring the media other than threats and physical attacks on journalists.”

The National Geographic Magazine is published in 31 languages, with a monthly circulation of nearly nine million and more than 50 million readers.

The article also mentions cases from Egypt, France, Norway, The Philippines, Thailand, Turkey and Zambia, and pays special attention to Turkey, a country that has 11 insult laws, including one specifically dedicated to protect the image of Mustafa Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. This country is now being required to reform these laws as a precondition to joining the European Union.

The World Press Freedom Committee is an international umbrella organization that includes 45 journalistic groups —print and broadcast, labor and management, journalists, editors, publishers and owners on five continents— united in the defense and promotion of press freedom. The WPFC primarily focuses on monitoring threats that develop at UNESCO, the UN and other parts of the UN system; promoting a global common front against restrictions on news through leadership of a worldwide Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations. WPFC also focuses on the reform or elimination of insult and criminal defamation laws, considered powerful censorship tools used to stifle the news media throughout the world.

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