FOCUS ON THE AMERICAS - International Press Institute

Above: U.S. President Barack Obama signs the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act in the Oval Office of the White
House in Washington, May 17, 2010. Alongside Obama are members of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl's family
including his wife Mariane (2nd L) and their son Adam Pearl (far L). (REUTERS)
Washington has not shied from denouncing
other governments for threatening
Web-based commentators, journalists
and forums for their reporting and disclosures.
Clinton’s Newseum speech mentioned
China, Egypt, Iran, Tunisia and
Uzbekistan as nations that trample on
cyber-expression. U.S. officials have also
criticized governments that seek to restrict
Web content and pressure Web
providers, such as Google, to block sites
deemed politically sensitive.
Much of the U.S. criticism focused on WikiLeaks
and its controversial Australian
founder rather than on news organizations
- including The New York Times, Britain’s
Guardian, the Parisian daily Le Monde, and
the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel -
that reported on the leaks and had privileged
access to the documents before they
were posted on the Internet site. Officials in
the Obama administration and U.S. Justice
Department indicated that investigations
were targeting WikiLeaks officials, as well
as government employees, who may have
leaked the war documents and diplomatic
dispatches, some of which contain damning
details about policies and actions that
occurred before Barack Obama became
president in 2009.
One person, Army Specialist Bradley Manning,
was facing charges that included disclosing
classified defense information and
transferring classified data onto his personal
computer. Manning, who was 22 at
the time of his arrest on June 6, faced a
court-martial.
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Some media analysts say WikiLeaks’ fuzzy
status - essentially a middleman between
journalists and sources - and its use of servers
in European countries with strong shield
laws, provide protection for news organizations
that republished the leaked documents.
Kelly McBride, a media ethics expert at the
Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida,
says if the documents had originally been
published by a newspaper like Times, “it’s
very possible that government agents
would have raided The New York Times and
confiscated information to determine who
the source was. So the international nature
of WikiLeaks and the sort of multinational
nature of it makes that less likely to happen,
but obviously that doesn’t mean that
anyone who provides information to WikiLeaks
is somehow immune from the reach
of his or her own government”.
The WikiLeaks case has been a bittersweet
one for journalists and media advocates,
who on the one hand praise the site’s exposure
of important policy issues and
decry the government’s threatened legal
actions as a move to stifle the flow of information,
but reel at the unedited release
of the documents. The raw documents
published by WikiLeaks include names
and other details about civilians who
could face reprisals, and violate many
news organizations’ standards on privacy
and protections against exposing people
to peril.
McBride told World Press Freedom Review
on December 3 that the WikiLeaks disclosure
raises questions about how to define a
journalist in an era of bloggers and activist
websites. “In fact, I think that the information
that WikiLeaks posts - the leaked cables
and other documents - do function
like journalism in that they provide transparency
where there was none and they
explain international events in ways that
we have not had those explanations provided
to us, and they hold powerful governments
accountable. So I think the information
functions like journalism even
though WikiLeaks itself is not considered
to be journalistic.”
Outside the WikiLeaks scandal, press freedom
advocates won some victories in
Washington in 2010.
President Obama signed into law the
Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act,
strongly backed by both parties in a convulsively
partisan election year. Named for
the Wall Street Journal reporter who was
kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in
2002, the law is mainly symbolic and follows
similar legislation on religious freedom.
The Pearl law requires the State Department
to strengthen its monitoring of
press freedom around the world, and its reporting
on governments that suppress free
expression.
In signing the legislation on May 17, President
Obama said it “sends a strong message
… that we are paying attention to how
other governments are operating when it
comes to the press.
“The loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those
moments that captured the world’s imagination
because it reminded us of how valuable
a free press is, and it reminded us that
there are those
Officials in the Obama administration and the
U.S. Justice Department indicated that investigations
were targeting WikiLeaks officials.
said at the White House.
who would go
to any length
in order to silencejournalists
around the
world,” Obama
In another victory, the State Department in
July reversed a decision to deny a visa to
Colombian investigative journalist Hollman
Morris, recipient of a one-year fellowship
at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for
Journalism. U.S. officials cited the television
reporter’s purported links to terrorism
in initially rejecting the visa.
U.S. authorities reversed their decision following
appeals from IPI and other organizations.
IPI sent a letter on July 7 urging
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Arturo
Valenzuela to reconsider the decision on
Morris, who attended IPI’s World Congress
in Belgrade in 2008. The Colombian journalist
was granted a visa to attend Harvard
later that month.
Morris’ tough reporting did not win friends
in the Colombian government. His television
show Contravía reported heavily on
alleged human rights abuses under former
President Alvaro Uribe, who won U.S. support
for battling drug gangs and the rebel
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
or FARC, which Washington has branded a
terrorist organization.
The visa denial was made under the 2001
Patriot Act, which strengthened the application
process and barred entry for those
believed linked to terrorist groups. Morris
denied any link to FARC other than contacts
he made as a journalist. The Colombian
journalist had traveled to the United
States before and interviewed U.S. officials
on his country’s controversial
human rights record.
In an e-mail message sent to IPI and other
groups that supported him, Morris said
after the U.S. Embassy reversed its visa decision:
“I'm really happy and I know that
none of this would have been possible
without you and all organizations that
supported me.”
Despite the Daniel Pearl law and the successful
lobbying effort on Morris’ behalf,
2010 marked another setback for efforts to
achieve the approval of a shield law that
would protect journalists from having to
reveal confidential sources before federal
courts. Nearly 40 years after the Supreme
Court ruled that journalists do not have a
constitutional right to shield anonymous
sources, the Free Flow of Information Act
was waylaid in the Senate after winning
approval in the House.
Media advocates have long pressed for a
federal statute to guard against attempts
to compel journalists to reveal their
sources, although most of the 50 states already
have shield laws. The cause gained
urgency following several high-profile
cases, including the gaoling of New York
Times reporter Judith Miller in 2005 over
her refusal to identify confidential
sources in reports on the Iraq War.
Also in 2010, relations between a president
who came to office vowing unprecedented
transparency and the White House press
corps grew chilly over questions of access.
Five months into his second year as presi-
dent, Obama had not held a full-fledged
press conference, despite epic legislative
fights, mid-term elections, and an economy
in the dumps. Obama’s ubiquitous
presence on newscasts belied the scant access
the press corps had to ask questions in
a White House that is assiduous about
scripted messages.
In late May, more than five weeks after the
Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Obama held his first
press conference since July 22, 2009. Fox
News reported that the 308-day interval exceeded
the taciturn President George W.
Bush’s 204-day record. The White House
has also restricted reporters and photographers’
access to some White House events,
afterwards releasing video and photos.
Meanwhile, relations between the media
and the White House grew more strained
over the occasional badgering of some
news organizations. One running battled
involved Fox News, whose television commentaries
were routinely critical of the administration
and allied Democrats.
Obama’s communications director at one
point called the cable channel “an arm of
the Republican Party.”
American journalists also faced restrictions
on access to the Gulf of Mexico cleanup following
the explosion of a BP oil rig on April
20. The U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Aviation
Administration both threatened reporters
and photographers with fines and arrest
if they breached the cleanup area, which
grew as did public attention toward one of
the country’s worst ecological disasters.
Fisherman whose livelihoods were spoiled
by slicks were hired by BP to help with the
cleanup, but with a catch: they had to agree
not to talk to reporters. Media organizations
condemned the corporate and government
restrictions, including USA Today.
In a June 14 editorial, the national daily
said: “The public will be living with the effects
of this catastrophe for many years.
Neither BP nor the government should be
getting in the way of what the public sees
as events unfold.”
Recommendations
• Enact a federal shield law to protect journalists
from being forced to reveal anonymous
sources.
• Use the new Daniel Pearl Freedom of the
Press Act to more forcefully pressure foreign
governments to end intimidation of
journalists and permit independent media.
• Avoid threats against individuals and organizations
that leak public documents.
• Ensure that freedom of the press is also
honored by all educational institutions.
United States in Brief
Population: 310 million
Domestic Overview:
The United States is a constitution-based
federal republic with a deep-rooted democratic
tradition. President Barack Obama
has served as both chief of state and head
of government since January 20, 2009. As
President, Obama is also Commander in
Chief of the armed forces and has ultimate
authority over foreign policy.
The U.S. has the largest economy in the
world, mostly fueled by natural resources.
Beyond Borders:
Backed by a $14 trillion economy, the U.S.
exercises powerful influence throughout
the world. The U.S. Secretary of State,
Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the foreign
minister and principal conductor of
diplomacy in foreign nations.
Canada is the United States’ largest trading
partner and main provider of oil. The Canada-
United States free-trade agreement of 1988
(FTA) eliminated tariffs between the two
countries, and the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) expanded the free-trade
zone to include Mexico in the 1990s.
The United States has intensified security
at the Mexican border, collaborating with
both Canadian and Mexican governments
to eradicate illegal transport of persons,
drugs and guns across the borders,
which continues to be a serious concern.
The U.S. is a permanent member of the
United Nations Security Council, with
New York City the headquarters of the
United Nations. The nation is also a
founding member of NATO, the largest
military alliance in the world.
IPI Contributor
Timothy Spence is a freelance journalist based in
Maastricht, the Netherlands.
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