Your committee prepared letters of concern addressed to authorities in Serbia (Tom Squitieri) and Mexico (Susan Kille). Letters to officials in Bolivia (Emma Daly) and Pakistan (Bill Collins) have been assigned.
In October, the abduction and murder of a journalist in Tijuana suggested an opportunity to quickly express our concerns via Twitter. Before we responded, however, Susan Kille, researching a possible OPC Bulletin article, discovered that the homicide police had taken a suspect into custody who was a family member of the victim. We await developments to see whether an OPC response would be appropriate.
President Serrill has alerted the committee to anticipate a December meeting to discuss methods of accelerating the FOP public outreach through Twitter and Facebook postings.
At the annual CPJ Awards Dinner November 20, the cases of four journalists from Brazil, Liberia, Kyrgyzstan and Tibet were spotlighted to dramatize the immense opposition, both criminal and governmental, faced by reporters in those countries.
The dinner reminded us that not all threats to press freedom flow from situations in remote parts of the globe. Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of The Guardian and The Observer in the UK, accepted the Benjamin Award for lifetime achievement.
Rusbridger acknowledged that the news organization and its owners, the Scott Trust, endured extraordinary pressures not to publish the phone hacking investigation. While none of its reporters faced jail for pubishing the story, the pressure to back down came from giant corporations, libel lawyers, the U.K. parliament and the Metropolitan police. Rusbridger praised “the constitutional and legal protections of countries which, mercifully, still do have strong laws and enshrined free speech.”
Such protections have eroded disastrously in Mexico. In the current New York Review of Books, Alma Guillermoprieto describes the rising toll in murders and the constant threats local reporters face in the remotest parts of their country (“Mexico: Risking Life for Truth”). The committee would be pleased to e-mail OPC members a copy of the article on request.
In other press freedom comment, David Carr’s column in Monday’s Times (“Using War as Cover to Target Journalists”) warns of the increasing government targeting of journalists in war zones, including Gaza. A Sunday piece posted on the Times.com (“Libel Case That Snared BBC Widens to Twitter”) describes a potential libel action against thousands of readers/journalists who Twittered about a BBC report that wrongfully accused a Conservative MP of sexual predation.
Respectfully submitted by:
John Martin, Acting Chair
Freedom of the Press Committee