Ambassador Garvey’s Speeches

Remarks for Ambassador Janet Garvey
DVC on World Press Freedom Day

May 5, 2008
Multi purpose room.

Bonjour,

Merci de vous joindre à nous pour le prolongement de La Journée Mondiale de la Liberté de la Presse célébrée le 03 mai dernier. C’est le moment pour tout le monde d’apprécier le travail et les efforts  des journalistes et des médias, en vue d’informer la société. C’est également le moment de rendre hommage à nos héros tombés, qui ont pris leur profession au sérieux et ont exposé leur vie pour informer le public. Je vous salue, le quatrième pouvoir.

-  World Press Freedom Day is designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and to remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right of freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

-  Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the day is celebrated each year on 3 May, the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles enunciated by African newspaper journalists in 1991.  Our program today is with George Kazolias, professor of journalism at the American University of Paris talking about “Responsible Journalism during a National Crisis.”

-  UNESCO takes a special interest in World Press Freedom Day, especially in the themes of press freedom, good governance, media coverage of terrorism, impunity and role of the media in post-conflict countries.  UNESCO has declared this year’s theme as: Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and Empowerment of People.  The United States was a founding member and is the fourth largest donor of UNESCO’s International Program for the Development of Communication that promotes media independence in developing countries.  Since rejoining UNESCO in 2003, the United States has increased its donations to them five-fold to $300,000 and has funded many of its media development projects, including in Afghanistan, Colombia, Cameroon, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Rwanda, and Uganda.

-  Americans believe the media should be self-regulating.  The World Press Freedom Committee in its work “The Code Words of Censorship,” of 2002 said that when the terms such as “responsibility,” “ethics,” “professionalism,” and “standards,” are used, these are universal code words for repression.  Journalists are encouraged to explore these avenues of self improvement.  Beware of those use code words to impose self-censorship.

-  As part of President George W. Bush’s Freedom Agenda, the United States views freedom of the press as a key component of democracy.  The free exchange of ideas fosters accountable government and allows the viewpoints of many, including the marginalized in a society, to be heard.  The United States works bilaterally and multilaterally in many ways to support press freedom worldwide.

-  The World Association of Newspapers Press said that in Africa in 2007, 156 journalists were arrested; 13 were murdered; and 127 journalists around the world were imprisoned.  The Committee to Protect Journalists said that 17 % of journalists jailed worldwide were held without any publicly disclosed charge, many for months or years and some in secret locations.

-  Recently during civil unrest in Cameroon, radio equipment was confiscated from one radio station which relay to the Cameroonian people broadcasts of the Voice of America.  The confiscated equipment belongs to the United States Government and I have spoken to your government about the return this equipment.  We note with alarm the silencing of one radio station and one television station.  I have lived and worked in countries of Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War, where regimes tried to silence the voice of the people.  It did not and it does not work.  Their efforts were counterproductive.  I believe and hope that such attempts to limit free speech will fail in the future.

Je salue le gouvernement du Cameroun pour les efforts en vue d’améliorer le travail des médias publics et privés. Nous le félicitons en effet pour l’élimination de la censure officielle et la levée du règne de la terreur qui exista dans ce pays il y a quelques décennies.

Toutefois, la tâche n’est pas encore achevée. Deux étapes seront les bienvenues en vue de l’évolution vers une approche plus moderne et plus visible, répondant aux standards universels de la liberté d’expression, qui est la base d’une démocratie véritable.

• Rouvrir Magic Fm, Equinoxe Radio et Télévision fermés récemment;
• Attribuer les licences d’exploitation promises y a trois ans déjà, et qui sont engluées dans la bureaucratie. Certaines stations sans licences opèrent sous la menace d’une sanction tacite. Cette mesure peut être utilisée pour fermer des médias qui disent des choses qui ne plaisent pas à quelques individus. J’en appelle à la bienveillance du  Ministre de Communication afin qu’il baisse les coûts des licences à des niveaux réalistes et raisonnables, et de délivrer les licences si longtemps attendues. Votre pays le mérite, et je vous saurai  gré de faire avancer ce processus.

I welcome you to this program and wish you a productive and fruitful exchange of views.  This room will always be a safe haven for legitimate differences of opinion and even dissent.  Thank you for being with us.

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