World Press Freedom Day - Statement by Hillary Clinton

By Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State

“We live in a world where the free flow of information and ideas is a powerful force for progress. Independent print, broadcast, and online media outlets are more than sources of news and opinion. They also expose abuses of power, fight corruption, challenge assumptions, and provide constructive outlets for new ideas and dissent.”

The United States joins the international community in celebrating World Press Freedom Day. A free press is essential to an empowered citizenry, government accountability and responsible economic development. Wherever independent media are under threat, accountable governance and human freedom are undermined

Courageous journalists across the globe risk their freedom and their lives to provide independent information on government actions and their consequences; report the news from conflict zones; expose crime, corruption and wrongdoing; and reveal human rights violations – all despite efforts, in some cases, by governments and others, to control what people read, hear and think.

For exercising the right to free expression, journalists and bloggers are too often targeted for harassment, intimidation, arrest, physical attack and even murder, often at the hands of unknown assailants who act with impunity. In November 2009, President Obama applauded the efforts of Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez to “empower fellow Cubans to express themselves through the use of technology” and said that her blog “provides the world a unique window into the realities of daily life in Cuba.” That same month she and two fellow bloggers were forcibly detained by plain clothes security personnel while en route to a peaceful demonstration, and she and one of her companions were beaten. Also in 2009, Burmese freelance journalist Hla Hla Win was sentenced to 27 years in prison on trumped-up charges based on nothing more than interviewing monks in commemoration of the Saffron Revolution. And Natalya Estemirova, an independent journalist from Russia who was known for her fearless reporting on human rights violations in Chechnya was kidnapped and murdered. In total, 71 journalists were killed last year, many murdered with impunity.

Governments in every region of the world apply restrictive laws and regulations and other controls on media freedom. These restrictions often extend beyond traditional print and broadcast media to new forms of electronic communications through the Internet and other new technologies. The State Department’s human rights report detailed our concerns about these practices.

Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is as relevant in our globalized Information Age as it was when it was adopted over six decades ago: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The United States is committed to working in partnership with members of the media, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and other concerned governments to defend freedom of expression and the brave journalists who are persecuted for exercising it on the challenging new terrain of the 21st century.

Comments

[njimaforboy]

Today, we call on all Southern Cameroonians, and the rest of Cameroonians suffering under the Biya Regime, to join us in using the inernet and other media sources to expose Biya and La Republique.

Do not be afraid, only the kinds of things u say can compromise your internet identity.

And if u are for the independence of Southern Cameroon, u have to be very careful. Paul Biya, the butcher of etoudi has no mercy. If u can not join us on the ground, please let the world know of our sruggle, while maintaining the sececy of your identity.

Your screen name alone can never be used to discover your identity. So speak up so the world can hear us.

[Son of the Soil.]

Any journalist or political activist who has not been jailed is inconsequential. Why the fuse about freedom of the press. Why should the US always want to lecture the world on principles they do not apply themselves. The Patriot Act should be scrapped then if the US is serious about freedom of speech.

[njimaforboy]

Stop comparing apples to oranges. Southern Cameroon needs a patriot act to get rid of folks like you. Stop exposing your ignorance and lack of fomal education on the internet.

It is not about lecturing sir, it is about doing what is right for mankind. It ia about making the world a better place than we met it.

You will forever remain blind to the truth because your selfishness supersedes anything else under the sun.

[Paul Biya]

Don't mind him Njimberforboy. This son of the soil boy truly doesn't know what he is saying. And I do not blame him for his ignorance. The only blame he can take is "blog pollution."
And for your information, son of the soil, maybe you read about USA in books, I live there and when people call it "the free world" they are not mistaken. USA is actually a free world. Free in all aspects if you know what i mean.
If you ask me, I think your comments are self centered and CPDM kind of....
Just an opinion...

[Chief Ayuk Arrey]

Son of the soil,
You're so proud of your selfishness and lies about your ill- gotten wealth if at all is a reality.
Who cares whether that Coachroach Franck Biya visits you or not. That is how all of you will be moving up and down, guilty conscience is hunting all of him. Do well to protect him Sir, but you all will never escaped from the Mighty arm of Justice.
He will vomit all that his Father stole from Cameroonians and gave him including all of the Betis. You all have grievances to settle with La Republique and Southern Cameroon.
So it makes no sense if you guys thing you will hide and protect yourselves forever.

[Son of the Soil.]

CENSORSHIP IS BAD FOR DEMOCRACY. UPSTATION MOUNTAIN CLUB SHOULD GROW UP OR SHUT UP.

The fact that certain mild criticisms are erased goes a long way to tell of the integrity of those buffoons who monitor this blog. Even as the World Press Freedom Day was celebrated, this blog did just exactly the opposite journalists around the globe were marching for. Who takes this blog seriously? Only very few Anglophones in this blog have stomach for criticism. These are Tande Dibussi and my arch adversary Innocent Chia.

If this blog intends to portray an open policy as a democratic forum, it should accept and publish my paper on the Anglophone Hypocrisy I wrote since last year. I know this essay will be erased as many others have been. What a disgrace? A mature paper would allow good ideas like mine to be read by all. It is time you grow up.

[Mallam Shehu]

Son of the Soil

Don’t mind some bloggers here, they’re all sharp at throwing scorn at others but will never tolerate a contrary view.

Just ignore these perpetrators of what they themselves laboriously spend time fighting against.

Some even go as far as thinking they’re more Southern Cameroonians than some of us are, makes laugh to near collapse all the time.

[mbuli Rene]

Dictator Biya thinks that he can reign his terror for ever. There is a time to rule, a time to kill and jail people unjustly and DEFINITELY a time to pay for crimes against HUMANITY. President Biya and his regime will pay for all they have been doing to Cameroonians and especially to the Southern Cameroonians. Biya the clock is ticking tic tac........ You will face the full wrath of justice soon.... very soon.

[The Entrepreneur Newsonline Inc.]

Journalist killed after investigating US-backed death squads

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/iraq-j01.shtml

On June 24, Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for the news agency Knight Ridder, was killed by a single bullet to the head as he approached a checkpoint that had been thrown up near his home in western Baghdad by US and Iraqi troops. It is believed that the shot was fired by an American sniper. According to eyewitnesses, no warning shots were fired.

The US military has announced it is conducting an investigation into Salihee’s killing. Knight Ridder has already declared, however, that “there’s no reason to think that the shooting had anything to do with his reporting work”. In fact, his last assignment gives reason to suspect that it was.

Over the past month, Salihee had been gathering evidence that US-backed Iraqi forces have been carrying out extra-judicial killings of alleged members and supporters of the anti-occupation resistance. His investigation followed a feature in the New York Times magazine in May, detailing how the US military had modeled the Iraqi interior ministry police commandos, known as the Wolf Brigade, on the death squads unleashed in the 1980s to crush the left-wing insurgency in El Salvador.

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Second journalist killed at US border in five weeks

http://www.ifex.org/mexico/2001/03/27/second_journalist_killed_at_us/

A second journalist was killed at the US border in a little over a month

In a letter to Eduardo Garza Rivas, public prosecutor of the state of Tamaulipas (north-western part of the country), Reporters sans frontières (RSF, www.rsf.fr) expressed its profound indignation over the assassination of Saúl Martínez, from the daily El Imparcial, published in Matamoros. The organisation asked the authorities to do everything in their power to ensure that the perpetrators of the murder be identified and punished. "This is the second journalist killed in one northern Mexican state in a little over a month," recalled Robert Ménard, RSF's secretary-general. He also condemned "the impunity that people who murder journalists in Mexico benefit from."

[Kamarad]

Ernest L. Molua, Fellow at Yale aka Entrepreneur Newsonline. You are wasting your time...no one cares!

[mathew]

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