Assistant Secretary Malinowski on Stemming the Tide of Media Repression

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you to Ambassador Power,

Ambassador Power summed up our purpose well: She said that we are here to affirm the right to pursue truth. The pursuit of truth is fundamental to political and intellectual life in a democratic society.

It is also a profoundly dangerous activity where the continuation of corruption and abuse of power depends on concealing the truth. And so this right is continuously under assault, and in need of affirmation.

It is the policy of the United States to defend it wherever it is threatened. We will stand up for journalists and writers, essayists and editors, bloggers and broadcasters, photographers and videographers, Tweeps and Tumblers, to seek out the truth and to tell us what they find and what they think, without censorship or fear of retribution.

We do so because it is right. We do so because the freedom of the press is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also do so because the world in which we want to live depends on it.

Here at the United Nations, governments and delegations spend much of their time considering matters of peace and security, and managing the crises that occupy the lion’s share of headlines in the press.

An event like this, where we spotlight individuals who have risked their lives and liberties to report the news, but who are not household names, may seem peripheral to the main business of a global organization, or to the core interests that drive the policies of great powers.

But consider the crisis that is occupying much of our attention today – Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. And consider what preceded it and continues unabated: A systematic campaign by the Russian government to bring newspapers, television and radio stations, and social networks under its control, to silence dissenting voices and control the information the Russian people receive.

Much of the world has marveled at the clumsiness of Russian authorities’ propaganda about the situation in Ukraine: The Russian people have been told that Kyiv was captured by Nazis and is engulfed in chaos and flames, that there were no Russian forces in Crimea and none today in Eastern Ukraine, and even that the United States has deployed combat dolphins to the Black Sea to undermine Russian interests.

It all seems preposterous to us; but when media loyal to the Russian state relentlessly broadcasts such propaganda and Russian authorities shut down alternative sources of information, more and more people are lulled into thinking that black is white, up is down, and two plus two may equal five.

By creating a closed information space within Russia, the Kremlin has thus been free to act without fear of domestic opposition or constraint.

It is therefore no surprise that Russia is now expanding this closed information space to include Crimea, and seeking to bring eastern Ukraine within it as well.

In recent days, we have seen armed men taking over TV stations and towers, replacing local broadcasts with Kremlin propaganda. We have seen journalists kidnapped and brutally attacked.

Yesterday, we were relieved to learn that pro-Russian separatists in Slovyansk had released a kidnapped American journalist. But we are deeply disturbed by the account of a dozen other detainees still being held and mistreated in a damp cellar.

This is not just wrong; it is dangerous. It is designed to fabricate a false narrative that allows Russia to facilitate acts of violence and violations of sovereignty that threaten the international order.

That is one reason why the United States believes in the enduring importance of a free press. It is one of our founding principles, and we view it as a cornerstone of our foreign policy.

And it is why – when these freedoms are hampered or denied – we are resolute in our support for free speech in both principle and practice.

Where there is corruption, we want it exposed. Where there is torture, we want it unmasked. Where there is abuse of power, we want its consequences discussed and debated.

When we have a dispute with another country, we want people on both sides to have access to the same information; we want that country’s government to be as accountable to its people as our government is to the American people.

We raise media freedom issues in our dealings with all governments at all levels at all times. We push for the release of journalists, who sit isolated behind bars without legal recourse, and we call for basic justice when bloggers are killed in the open with outright impunity.

We also provide direct assistance and training to journalists in closed societies. Last year, for instance, we started a program called SAFE designed to ensure the safety of journalists working in conflict areas worldwide. Following one training in particular, a reporter from Africa recounted how, for the first time in years, he was able to get a full night’s rest without that persistent, uneasy sense of fear.

Elsewhere, we strongly support raising awareness of human rights issues and provide support to independent media – in places like Sudan, where a young father chose not to have his daughters circumcised because of a State Department-funded radio show that educated on the dangers of female genital mutilation. Or, in North Korea, where we support flow of outside information to a people whose government denies knowledge of the rest of the world.
It’s examples like these that remind us of the vital role that a functioning press can and should play in a free society.

Unfortunately, there is much work to be done. For we live in a world where too many reporters are intimidated into silence. Where too many journalists are subject to restrictive laws that conflate criticism with criminal activity.

Where at least one journalist a week has been killed each year for the last decade – and the numbers are getting progressively worse, not better.

Yes, there is much work to be done. And we must and will continue to be on the frontlines of these efforts.

Often times, it is reporters who give voice to stories that would otherwise never be told. But today, we give voice to the stories of four reporters who need and deserve to have their stories told.

Sergey Reznik is a Russian journalist and blogger who sits in prison for the alleged crime of insulting a local judge. Human rights activists in Russia believe he is serving an 18-month sentence in retaliation for his writings, which criticized local authorities and uncovered corruption.

One month before his conviction, he was beaten with a baseball bat and shot by two unidentified men. Reznik now sits in jail. While those who attacked him walk free with total impunity.

Today, we again call on the government of Russia to release Reznik, to cease its unprecedented campaign to silence the independent press, and to protect the right to freedom of expression.

In Vietnam, two people also sit in prison for doing their jobs, and one under house arrest. Mr. Nguyen Van Hai, better known as Dieu Cay, Ms. Ta Phong Tan, and Mr. Phan Thanh Hai were arrested in 2012 for quote, “anti-state propaganda,” which carries sentences of 12, 10, and four years respectively. Their true crime? Writing blog entries and advocating for free expression.

Today, we continue to call for the immediate release of all three individuals, who were jailed merely for exercising their basic human rights. And we call on Vietnam to honor its international human rights commitments.

These four individuals represent the very best of what it means to pursue truth. That is why we are highlighting them today as our first of 12 Free the Press cases.

In the coming days, we will continue to raise the cases of other imperiled reporters and media outlets from around the world on our website, HumanRights.gov, and from the podium during our daily press briefs at the State Department.

Now, I would like to turn this podium over to someone who is doing yeomen’s work on these very issues and to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude – Joel Simon of the Committee to Protect Journalists.