OBAMA: BETTER NEWSPAPERS WITHOUT GOVERNMENT THAN GOVERNMENT WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS
PanARMENIAN.Net
04.05.2009 15:06 GMT+04:00
U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement on World Press Freedom
Day marked on May 3.
The statement says:
"World Press Freedom Day is annually observed on May 3 to remind
us all of the vital importance of this core freedom. It is a day in
which we celebrate the indispensable role played by journalists in
exposing abuses of power, while we sound the alarm about the growing
number of journalists silenced by death or jail as they attempt to
bring daily news to the public.
Although World Press Freedom Day has only been celebrated since 1993,
its roots run deep in the international community. In 1948, as people
across the globe emerged from the horrors of the Second World War,
nations saw fit to enshrine in the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights the fundamental principle that 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."
Even as the world recognizes the central and indisputable importance
of press freedom, journalists find themselves in frequent peril. Since
this day was first celebrated some sixteen years ago, 692 journalists
have been killed. Only a third of those deaths were linked to the
dangers of covering war; the majority of victims were local reporters
covering topics such as crime, corruption, and national security in
their home countries. Adding to this tragic figure are the hundreds
more each year who face intimidation, censorship, and arbitrary arrest
– guilty of nothing more than a passion for truth and a tenacious
belief that a free society depends on an informed citizenry. In every
corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively
harassed: from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, Burma to Uzbekistan, Cuba to
Eritrea. Emblematic examples of this distressing reality are figures
like J.S. Tissainayagam in Sri Lanka, or Shi Tao and Hu Jia in China.
We are also especially concerned about the citizens from our own
country currently under detention abroad: individuals such as Roxana
Saberi in Iran, and Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea.
Today, I lend my voice of support and admiration to all those brave
men and women of the press who labor to expose truth and enhance
accountability around the world. In so doing, I recall the words of
Thomas Jefferson: "The basis of our governments being the opinion
of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right;
and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government
without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."