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In the run up to the Olympics this year the committee naturally made a commitment to keeping a special eye on China. About a year ago we noticed a ratcheting up of routine forms of harassment against journalists and bloggers, and it has not let up. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at last count twenty six journalists are in Chinese prisons on charges connected with their professional activities, making China the world's largest jailer of journalists, a title it has held for several years running.
In a recent letter to President Hu Jintao, for instance, we drew attention to two recent egregious examples:
- The harassment and detention of journalists attempting to cover protests by bereaved parents after the Sichuan earthquake last spring.
- Chen Yang, a reporter for Ming Pao of Hong Kong, was intercepted by four police officers while taking photos of hundreds of disgruntled investors protesting the alleged embezzlement of 170 million Chinese yuan by the president of the China Commodity Spot Exchange, Guo Yuanfeng. The police confiscated Chen's camera and memory card.
We remarked to President Hu that we are well aware of China’s hard work to impress the world as host of the Olympic Games and to avoid doing anything to avoid offending Western sensibilities. Frankly, we argued, the government’s priorities are seriously misguided. What will offend Western sensibilities most of all is the continuing repression of the fundamental democratic right of freedom of speech and expression.
Latin America, where only a few years ago the virtue of free expression seemed firmly established, has in the past two years become a continuing source of concern for the committee. Venezuela and Colombia, for instance, hear from the committee regularly. In Guatemala, to cite another example, outside of the capital stories of journalists receiving threats, being assaulted and even being assassinated are now reported regularly. In just past few weeks we were in touch with President Alvaro Colom about the cases of two journalists, Danilo López, correspondent of Prensa Libre, and Oscar Perdomo, correspondent for Emisoras Unidas. Both are located in Suchitepéquez. Both received death threats after reports suggesting corruption among local politicians. In an exchange with President Colom we made the obvious point that to see their peers threatened, beaten and even murdered makes it hard for even the most courageous journalist to think and speak freely.
The good news is that President Colom has frequently been on record in support of press freedom, as has Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon. Despite Calderon’s public support Mexico is still among the world's most dangerous countries to be a journalist. But this summer Calderon has expressed public support for the idea of federalizing crimes against freedom of expression. We applauded him for that, suggesting that it would go along way toward building public support for the government as it confronts its current economic challenges and the scourge of drug traffic.
I could run down a long list of countries where we’ve spoken up for our colleagues this year. In July, for example, we took up the deteriorating situations of journalists in Serbia and Azerbaijan. But as you can see from this short recap of our recent activity, the small team that is the FoP committee is stretched pretty thin—and that’s always been the case. We extend a continuing invitation to OPC members to join us in our work.
A year or so ago the co-chairmen of the committee asked the board for its help in more sharply defining the direction of the committee. We proposed, for example, that we look for ways to leverage our limited resources by focusing on countries that are responsive to international opinion—Guatemala, say—versus the obvious bad guys on the world stage who are unlikely to be moved by the outrage of the Overseas Press Club—China, say, or Russia.
I take this opportunity to again ask the board again for its thinking about the work of the committee, and any ideas it has for accelerating our impact.
Kevin McDermott is the founder of Collective Intelligence and co-chairman of the OPC’s press-freedom committee.
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