On fifth anniversary of editor’s murder, ARTICLE 19 calls for redoubling of efforts to bring perpetrators to justice

International Freedom of Expression eXchange: Elmar Huseynov’s assassination had a distinctly chilling effect on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan, says ARTICLE 19.

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On fifth anniversary of editor’s murder, ARTICLE 19 calls for redoubling of efforts to bring perpetrators to justice

CPJ urges Uzbekistan to acquit Umida Akhmedova, release imprisoned journalists

International Freedom of Expression eXchange: In an open letter, CPJ calls on the Uzbek president to guarantee the right to freedom of expression for all citizens.

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CPJ urges Uzbekistan to acquit Umida Akhmedova, release imprisoned journalists

Civil society and media organisations forge a way for free media in the North Caucasus

International Freedom of Expression eXchange: More than sixty media and human rights representatives gathered in Moscow to discuss joint actions for improving the state of freedom of expression.

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Civil society and media organisations forge a way for free media in the North Caucasus

US will promote Internet freedom, digital democracy

Democracy Digest from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED): The US Government will fund and facilitate innovative approaches to expanding internet freedom and access, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this morning. Activists like those in Iran’s Green movement were “redefining how technology is used to spread truth and expose injustice”

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US will promote Internet freedom, digital democracy

Libel tourists ‘threatening the foundations of democracy’

Democracy Digest from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED): Will tomorrow’s election mark the latest stage in Ukraine’s Road from Democracy and signal the sad end to the Orange Revolution? If so, the results of what some anticipate as an anti-Orange election will be at least partly due to the influence of the country’s increasingly powerful oligarchs, not least Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man

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Libel tourists ‘threatening the foundations of democracy’

Obama nominee to promote free flow of information abroad shoved a reporter

FreeMediaOnline.org, Free Media Online Blog, January 13, 2010, San Francisco — Link to Video

The Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack believes that the man who had pushed him on the street in Washington, D.C. Tuesday night to prevent him from asking questions of Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley may have been Michael P. Meehan who works for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Michael Meehan is also one of President Obama’s nominees to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG. The bipartisan Board is responsible for promoting free flow of news and information abroad through U.S. government-funded broadcasts such as the Voice of America, VOA, Alhurra Television, and Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, RFE/RL.

“If Michael P. Meehan is positively identified as the person who had attacked The Weekly Standard reporter while the journalist tried to ask questions of a candidate for a political office, President Obama should immediately withdraw Mr. Meehan’s nomination to the Broadcasting Board of Governors,” said Ted Lipien, president of FreeMediaOnline.org, a San Francisco-based NGO which promotes media freedom worldwide. Michael Meehan’s nomination has not yet been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“The BBG needs leaders who are fully committed to the concept of journalistic freedom,” Lipien said.

According to the White House press release, “Michael P. Meehan currently serves as President of Blue Line Strategic Communications, Inc. and as Senior Vice President at Virilion, a digital media company. For over two decades, Meehan served in senior roles for U.S. Senators John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, two presidential campaigns, two U.S. House offices and congressional campaigns in 25 states. Mr. Meehan earned a B.A. in political science from Bates College.”

Former U.S. presidents have also nominated political operatives to serve on the BBG, a practice which Free Media Online blames for making the Broadcasting Board of Governors one of the worst managed U.S. federal agencies.

In November 2009, President Obama had announced his intention to nominate former CNN chairman and CEO Walter Isaacson, a Democrat, to chair the BBG. The Broadcasting Board of Governors is an independent federal agency in charge of all U.S. civilian international news broadcasting. President Obama had also nominated seven other new members of the bipartisan board, including Dana Perino, the former White House Press Secretary to President George W. Bush, and former U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor H. Ashe. They would be among four new Republican members of the BBG.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the eight new appointees would replace the current BBG leadership with the exception of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who serves as an ex officio member.

The BBG manages the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio and TV Martí, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN)—Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television. All are funded exclusively by U.S. taxpayers.

The agency with the estimated $717.4 million budget in FY 2009 and nearly 3,800 employees has been consistently rated by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM, in employee surveys as one of the worst managed within the federal government. Some of the current BBG members and their executive staff have tried to withhold from the U.S. Congress and journalists independent taxpayer-funded studies revealing cases of serious mismanagement at the BBG and its privatized broadcasting entities, especially Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television. One of the studies described substandard journalistic practices at Alhurra, including broadcasting stattements from Holocaust deniers, and its failure to attract a meaningful audience in the Middle East.

To pay private media contractors favored by the Bush Administration, the BBG eliminated all Voice of America Arabic news programs and cut broadcasts to many other countries without free media. VOA Russian-language radio broadcasts were terminiated in July 2008, just 12 days before the Russian military attack on Georgia.

Both Republicans and Democrats appointed to the BBG by President Bush approved these controversial decisions. The effort to create contractor-managed broadcasting to the Muslim world, as opposed to broadcasting by the Voice of America, which operates under a Congressional charter as a U.S. government entity with guarantees of journalistic independence, was led by former Democratic BBG members: Norman Pattiz and Edward E. Kaufman. Mr. Kaufman, a close friend of Vice President Joe Biden, is now a U.S. senator from Delaware.

The alliance of Democratic BBG members with neoconservatives in the Bush administration was essential for carrying out plans to privatize much of U.S. international broadcasting. Only one current Board member, conservative radio host Blanquita Walsh Cullum who is also the only working journalist on the BBG, was reported to have opposed some of the questionable management practices at the BBG, particularly the push to eliminate Voice of America broadcasts to countries without independent media.

According to Ted Lipien, the BBG needs leaders who are willing to end mismanagement and politicization of U.S. international broadcasting. FreeMediaOnline.org has been advocating for selecting future members of the BBG who have journalistic experience and have demonstrated their commitment to press freedom and human rights.

Update from The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack:

A remorseful Michael P. Meehan called today to apologize (see here for background).

He said: “I just want to say to you that I’m sorry. And I’d just like to apologize. I appreciate your calling me back. I don’t want to make a big federal case out of it.”

He continued: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were a reporter because you didn’t have any credentials, so I apologize for not knowing you were a reporter.”

I asked Meehan if he disputed anything that I wrote. “No,” he said.

I thanked Meehan for his apology. 

Freedom House report highlights continuing democratic recession – or stasis?

Democracy Digest from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED): The global democratic regression appears well-entrenched, a new Freedom House report suggests, as declines in freedom trumped gains for the fourth consecutive year. Current trends represent the “longest continuous period of deterioration in the nearly 40-year history of Freedom in the World,” according to the democracy watchdog’s annual assessment of political rights and civil liberties.

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Freedom House report highlights continuing democratic recession – or stasis?