Commemorating World Press Freedom Day
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
May 2, 2014
May 3 we commemorate World Press Freedom Day at
a time when for too many, a free press is under assault, and the
journalists, bloggers, photographers, essayists, satirists, and
essayists who give life to the words “free press” are in danger.
People everywhere count on a free press to keep us informed, hold leaders accountable, filter fact from fiction, and unmask false narratives masquerading as truth.
The danger of the work journalists do in pursuing the truth was driven home for me during my trip to Kyiv in March. I’ll never forget when our Ambassador pointed out a makeshift memorial on the side of the road where a journalist who dared to criticize the regime was pulled from her car and beaten within an inch of her life by thugs allied with then-President Yanukovych. These abuses are happening in too many places: journalists are intimidated into self-censorship or arrested without cause. They’re imprisoned without judicial recourse or killed with outright impunity.
I am in awe of the courage of those who risk their lives to tell the stories the world needs to hear. In Syria, the world’s most dangerous place to be a journalist, reporters risk torture, detention, abduction, and death to expose the truth and depict the horrors unfolding across the country.
I still remember the reporters who sometimes rode with us on our boat in Vietnam. They didn’t carry a gun. They carried a pen. Sometimes, that’s more powerful.
So today we pay tribute to all our truth tellers in a noble cause: The people who put their lives and liberties on the line to tell the stories the world would otherwise never know. We reaffirm our commitment not only to stand by them, but to stand up for them this day and every day the world over.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/05/225560.htm
People everywhere count on a free press to keep us informed, hold leaders accountable, filter fact from fiction, and unmask false narratives masquerading as truth.
The danger of the work journalists do in pursuing the truth was driven home for me during my trip to Kyiv in March. I’ll never forget when our Ambassador pointed out a makeshift memorial on the side of the road where a journalist who dared to criticize the regime was pulled from her car and beaten within an inch of her life by thugs allied with then-President Yanukovych. These abuses are happening in too many places: journalists are intimidated into self-censorship or arrested without cause. They’re imprisoned without judicial recourse or killed with outright impunity.
I am in awe of the courage of those who risk their lives to tell the stories the world needs to hear. In Syria, the world’s most dangerous place to be a journalist, reporters risk torture, detention, abduction, and death to expose the truth and depict the horrors unfolding across the country.
I still remember the reporters who sometimes rode with us on our boat in Vietnam. They didn’t carry a gun. They carried a pen. Sometimes, that’s more powerful.
So today we pay tribute to all our truth tellers in a noble cause: The people who put their lives and liberties on the line to tell the stories the world would otherwise never know. We reaffirm our commitment not only to stand by them, but to stand up for them this day and every day the world over.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/05/225560.htm
When was the last time you saw Jam answering questions from independent press like BBC or CNN? The only questions he answer must be prepared and later read on the telepromter raising his fist and fingers pointed at the camera. What a fooking joker he is? Even those pti trezors are laughing at him he visit their school. Once one said sakouyon ki i vin fer la? They asked him ? he can't
ReplyDeleteeven answer straight forward and started with errr......and finished with... nwa get ladan.
We all should thank Gary Tall and Christopher Gill for all their hard work and dedication to shine light in a dark room as they say.
ReplyDeleteThank Viral Danjhee for his role to persue justice.
Thank all those helping the cause to free Seychelles.
Jean Payet, and others.
Without them Seychelles would be totally lost with a regime that is stubborn, and dictatorial, left footed, and an opposition that is fake in PDM and up for sale in SNP.
If a country has a free press, its newspapers, magazines, and television and radio stations are able to express any opinions they want, even if these criticise the government and other organisations:
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