Barack Obama: Belarus authorities imprison journalists

The US President signed a law requiring the State Department to evaluate press freedom in countries around the world.

The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, named so in honor of the American journalist who was kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan by terrorists on February 1, 2002, obliges the State Department to highlight governments that condone and facilitate repression of the press.

The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, said President Obama, “sends a strong message from the United States government and from the State Department that we are paying attention to how other governments are operating when it comes to the press.”

Under the new law, the State Department will be required to evaluate press freedom in countries around the world and highlight governments that condone and facilitate repression of the press.

“Oftentimes, without this kind of attention,” said President Obama, “countries and governments feel they can operate against the press with impunity, and we want to send a message that they can't.”

The attention is warranted. In a recent statement on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, President Obama noted that last year was a particularly bad one for freedom of the press worldwide.

While people gained greater access than ever before to information through the Internet and cell phones, governments like, North Korea, Ethiopia, Iran, and Venezuela curtailed freedom of expression by limiting full access to and use of these technologies.

More media workers were killed for their work last year than any year in recent history. The high toll was driven in large part by the election-related killings of more than 30 journalists in the Philippine province of Maguindanao. In addition, journalists were killed with impunity in Somalia and Honduras.

Even more journalists have been imprisoned. “Iran, following its crackdown on dissent after the last elections,” said President Obama, "now has more journalists behind bars than any other nation. Governments in Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela imprisoned journalists who wrote articles critical of government leaders and their policies.”

The United States honors those who carry out the vital task of reporting the truth to their fellow citizens, despite the many challenges and threats they face. All nations should. Article 19 of the United Nation's Universal Declaration on Human Rights protects freedom of expression including the right to a free press.

There can be no doubt that a free and independent press is central to a vibrant and well-functioning democracy.

We remind that pressure on journalists has recently increased in Belarus. Two criminal cases have been initiated against independent news website charter97.org. Its office was searched and 8 computers were seized. Charter97.org journalist Natallya Radzina, “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper journalists Svyatlana Kalinkina and Maryna Koktysh, “Novaya Gazeta” correspondent Iryna Khalip are witnesses in one of these criminal cases. The journalists are often called in for interrogations, their computers were seized. Natallya Radzina was beaten during the search.

Editor of opposition newspaper “Tovzrishch” Syarhei Vvaznyak has recently been arrested after a search in his apartment.