Alert the presses: Bipartisanship is possible, according to Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Kaine, who are working together to promote international freedom of the press.
On Friday, the South Carolina Republican and Virginia Democrat introduced the International Press Freedom Act of 2021, a bipartisan bill that would promote global press freedom by creating a coordinator for international press freedom at the State Department, authorize new funding for programs that protect journalists, use existing funds to prevent, investigate, and prosecute crimes against journalists who are overseas, and create a new visa category to allow threatened journalists to come to the United States.
“Enshrined in both our Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, press freedom is a core American value that we must constantly promote around the globe,” Kaine said. “With this bill, our country will let journalists know that we will protect their right to report and offer safe harbor when they are threatened.”
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Groups that promote press freedom applauded the proposal. Annie Boyajian, director of advocacy at Freedom House, applauded the pair of senators and said she was “pleased to support this bill,” and Washington Advocacy Manager for the Committee to Protect Journalists Michael De Dora said the bill would “bolster U.S. foreign diplomacy on global press freedom and provide additional support to at-risk journalists who desperately need it.”
“Journalists around the world face unprecedented challenges that threaten their ability to safely and effectively perform their duties. … We urge Congress to give this bill the serious consideration it deserves,” De Dora added.
While freedom of the press is a First Amendment right enshrined in the Constitution, journalists in other countries have been imprisoned for reporting controversial stories. In February, two Belarusian journalists were sentenced to two years in prison for covering political protests in the nation.
Zhang Zhan, a journalist in China, was sentenced last December to four years in prison for reporting on her nation’s coronavirus cover-up as the global pandemic took root. Her indictment said she was guilty of “publishing large amounts of fake information” and was giving interviews to foreign news outlets to “stir up the Wuhan COVID-19 epidemic situation.”
Leo Lan, a research and advocacy consultant with the Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said government officials “want to use her case as an example to scare off other dissidents from raising questions about the pandemic situation in Wuhan earlier this year.”
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A record number of journalists were jailed because of their work in 2020, with at least 274 journalists sent to prison in relation to their work as of Dec. 1 of last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ faulted “lack of global leadership on democratic values — particularly from the United States, where President Donald Trump has inexhaustibly denigrated the press and cozied up to dictators such as Egyptian President Abdelfattah el-Sisi” for “perpetuat[ing] the crisis.”
A representative for Graham did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
