*EPF206 07/08/2003
Text: U.S. Will Support Press Freedom at Upcoming Information Society Summit
(Assistant Secretary Holmes says press freedom at risk in many nations) (2200)

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kim Holmes says the United States will urge the world community to reaffirm commitments to individual freedom of expression and opinion at the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society.

Holmes said that the final summit declaration and plan of action to emerge from the December meeting "should in no way impinge on press freedom or intellectual property rights. There are, of course, real indications that they could do that," the assistant secretary said in a June 27 speech to the World Press Freedom Committee delivered in New York.

The global meeting to be held in Geneva will be jointly sponsored by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Negotiations on the summit declaration and plan of action are currently under way.

The WSIS goal, according to ITU documents, will be to complete an agreement on principles for expanding the information society, but also to draw an action plan to be used as a reference point for nations where advanced information technologies have just gained a foothold.

"Intense negotiations will be required in December if all the various interests at the Summit are to agree on how to best protect and promote press freedom," said Holmes.

The United States will promote what Holmes described as three overarching themes: infrastructure development for information and communications technology (ICT), network security and enabling people to use and benefit from ICT.

The following terms are used in the text:

ITU: International Telecommunications Union
OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
UNCITRAL: United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization
WTO: World Trade Organization

Following are excerpts from the Holmes speech

(begin text)

U.S. Department of State
International Organizations and Press Freedom

Kim R. Holmes, Assistant Secretary for Bureau of International Organization Affairs

Remarks to the World Press Freedom Committee and Communications Media Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's Conference on Press Freedom on the Internet

New York, New York
June 27, 2003

Thank you, Under Secretary Tharoor, for that generous introduction.... I look forward to working with you on many issues of concern to us, particularly the issue that brings us here today, press freedom....

Press freedom on and off the Internet is at risk in too many countries around the world. Most of us are familiar with China's "Great Firewall." It has limited citizens' access to information on the Internet. Americans would not be surprised to learn that, just this week, the government of China shut down the Beijing New Times after it had published articles critical of China's leadership.

Americans would be surprised to hear about the French court's attempt to erect a firewall to keep content on Yahoo away from France's people. Americans should be dismayed to hear that Russia just closed down another independent TV station, TVS.

In contrast, the U.S. Government, particularly through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, is committed to strengthening the role of free media in society. Press freedom and access to information is so vitally important to developing democracies that we track media freedom for our annual Human Rights Report. The stories in that report are unsettling. In the Congo, for example, journalists can be put to death just for filing a press report that the government decides could "demoralize a nation."

More to the point, the U.S. Government gives grants to independent media organizations. We run exchange programs for journalists. And we fund programs that provide Internet access and training. We target press freedom funding in Central Asia, Africa, and the Balkans to those efforts that strengthen objective and independent journalism.

Let me give you some examples.

-- In FY 2002, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor contributed $700,000 to a two-year project in Central Asia to strengthen objective, responsible journalism and to increase coverage of human rights issues.

-- This Bureau also contributed $728,000 to a program to increase the availability of fact-based journalism by independent media in the Middle East. The program exposed journalists to skills and techniques that could defuse conflicts in their own communities.

-- In FY 2001, State purchased a printing press and shipped it to Kyrgyzstan. We gave local NGOs in Kenya funding to monitor radio and television broadcasts during the election.

These Human Rights and Democracy Fund programs go a long way to helping people beset by repression develop free media and civil societies. The U.S. Government more than doubled the Fund in FY 2003 so that we could support more good free press and other programs around the world. Such spending is all the more urgent now because, as so many NGOs are reporting, press freedom is declining.

Both bilaterally and multilaterally, we will continue to urge governments to lift restrictions on the media. We also will press our case in international organizations, like UNESCO, that play a role in protecting press freedom in general, and particularly on the Internet.

Organizations like UNESCO, the ITU, the WTO, WIPO, UNCITRAL, the World Bank, and OECD are all considering complex issues affecting freedom of expression and freedom of the press, like intellectual property rights and content regulation. In all these forums, we will make it clear that we consider the Internet, cyberspace, and satellite broadcasts no different than print or television mediums. They deserve the same treatment when it comes to freedom of expression. We are working to ensure that freedom, and free-market principles, remain foremost in their deliberations and work.

One of our urgent areas of concern, of course, is the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society. The Summit could provide an opportunity for the international community to reaffirm its commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the right of each individual to freedom of opinion and expression. That freedom includes the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Our task is to ensure that the Summit achieves concrete outcomes that are fully consistent with freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

We recognize that information and communication technologies (ICT) have enormous potential to expand educational opportunities and to strengthen democracy through a variety of e-government applications. We do not want that potential restrained. That's why we will promote three overarching themes at the Summit: infrastructure development for ICT, network security, and enabling people to use and benefit from ICT (i.e., human capacity building).

It will not be easy to convince some that this is the best plan, but we will try. There will be an interim meeting in Paris in a few weeks to hammer out a text for the Third Preparatory Committee in September. The text completed and adopted there will be sent to the Summit for adoption in December.

Again, we believe, the final Summit Declaration and Plan of Action that emerges should in no way impinge on press freedom or intellectual property rights. There are, of course, real indications that they could do that, which is your reason for meeting today.

Like you, we found it disconcerting when concepts like "balancing information flows and respect for national sovereignty" were raised at the Second Preparatory Committee in March. Such phrases could be interpreted as justification for censorship. And they certainly could resurrect the failed centralized, statist ideas from old "New World Information Order" debates.

Several countries or parties are also proposing ideas or language for the Draft Declaration and Work Plan that concern us. One involves intellectual property protections for content transmitted on ICT networks. The State Department is working with U.S. agencies that protect intellectual property and with private sector groups to ensure that language that would undermine the protections for intellectual property we had achieved in the WTO and WIPO agreements is not included in the final WSIS Declaration.

Another example is language Cuba wants to add to limit private ownership and control of the media. Obviously, we cannot accept such language. Cuba also is calling for media "screening by governments of private sector and civil society organizations." Clearly, Cuba still fears the truth. We, in America, embrace it, no matter how difficult it might be to hear.

To his credit, Director General Matsuura of UNESCO voiced concern about Cuba's lack of press freedom and freedom of expression after dozens of Cuban journalists were put on trial in April without proper legal counsel. Dr. Matsuura called these arrests "a serious infringement of the rights and principles that the United Nations and UNESCO were created to uphold."

He's right. But Cuba's representative to UNESCO criticized him roundly and publicly for that statement.

India is a different kind of example. It has proposed language that calls on governments to "safeguard against the concentration of control over media by only a few entities." Obviously, as these different examples show, intense negotiations will be required in December if all the various interests at the Summit are to agree on how to best protect and promote press freedom.

If the Summit is to contribute to a real "information society," it must reaffirm - and loudly - the rights boldly set out in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It should not be a forum for those who want to create new universal "rights."

We count on the continued vigilance and help of the World Press Freedom Committee and other like-minded groups to help us assure these outcomes. We will continue to look to non-governmental partners as this process unfolds for the knowledge and advice we will need to develop a Declaration of Principles and an Action Plan that we can join in December.

We will also carry our message regarding press freedom to UNESCO when we rejoin in October, after an absence of 19 years. We left in part because UNESCO was mismanaged. We also left because of the hostile ideology UNESCO had embraced, particularly the now-discredited "New World Information Order."

As a member, we believe we will be in a much stronger position to promote press freedom.

We would like to see a focus in UNESCO on using ICT for education and good governance. We have indicated that we would like to see more of UNESCO's resources devoted to promoting and strengthening independent media and the free press, most particularly in conflict and post-conflict areas. We are suggesting that part of our fourth quarter dues be dedicated to such efforts.

These proposals would complement the two "Main Lines of Activities" UNESCO has included in its 2004-05 draft budget in the area of Communications and Information. These are: (1) promoting press freedom, freedom of expression and democracy; and (2) promoting independent media in conflict situations.

In the future, we will need to be as vigilant about UNESCO declarations as we are about the WSIS documents. We again will look to free press advocates like the World Press Freedom Committee as watchdogs, identifying any emerging threats to press freedom and helping us combat them.

The juncture between an informed citizenry, economic self-interest and the rule of law is fundamental to democracy and good governance everywhere. No nation can become democratic or be economically free if its citizens cannot openly and freely express their opinions. And no nation is truly free if free print and broadcast media are not available to provide independent and objective information.

The Organization of American States recently affirmed this principle. "Democracy is strengthened," OAS members agreed, "by the full respect for freedom of expression, access to information, and free dissemination of ideas." The media, the OAS statement says, "can contribute to an environment of tolerance for all opinions, promote a culture of peace and strengthen democratic governance." We see this happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

This linkage between freedom of information and democracy and development is catching on. The World Bank report, "The Right to Tell," links information access to economic development. It explains how a free media and the Internet are fostering an exchange of best practices, access to better technology, and most of all better choices.

Another example: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe recently equated the World Wide Web with media freedom. To paraphrase a statement by its communications officer, "www" can be the password that enables people to cut through firewalls of censorship and oppression.

James Madison said in 1822, "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce, or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

No one could have said it better: Freedom of information is the foundation of self-government.
a
In this age of the Internet, this even more true than it was in Madison's time.

(end text)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents