1.This Act may be cited as the
Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act
of 2009
.
2.
(a)Congress
finds the following:
(1)Acts of violence
against journalists and media personnel continue to rise in frequency, with
very few of the attacks resulting in prosecution.
(2)According to the
2008 Annual Report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2008 at least 41
journalists were killed in connection with their work, and 125 were
imprisoned.
(3)Reflecting the rise
in influence of Internet reporting, an increasing number of online editors,
bloggers, and web-based reporters are being imprisoned and websites are being
closed because of official censorship.
(4)The United States
and the international community agree that the safety and independence of
journalists and the media are a matter of pressing international concern. On
December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights states 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.
.
(b)The
purposes of this Act are to—
(1)highlight and
promote the work and accomplishments of journalists and media organizations
that promote freedom of opinion and expression worldwide;
(2)draw attention to
the conditions in countries in which journalists are killed, imprisoned,
kidnapped, threatened, or censored;
(3)offer protection
for these individuals and media organizations by identifying to the
international community those countries where journalists are at the highest
risk; and
(4)emphasize the
significance of including freedom of the press as enshrined in article 19 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a factor in United States foreign
policy.
3.Annual report on
the promotion of freedom of the press worldwide
(a)The
Secretary of State shall annually submit to Congress a report regarding the
promotion of freedom of the press worldwide. The report shall be entitled the
Annual Report on the Status of Freedom of the Press
Worldwide
.
(b)The
Secretary shall prepare the Annual Report with the assistance of the Bureau of
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
(c)The
Annual Report shall contain the following information:
(1)A
description of the status of freedom of the press in each country, including
initiatives in favor of freedom of the press and efforts to improve or
preserve, as appropriate, the independence of the media, together with an
assessment of progress made as a result of those efforts.
(2)An
identification of countries in which there were violations of freedom of the
press, including direct physical attacks, imprisonment, indirect sources of
pressure, and censorship by governments, military, intelligence, or police
forces, criminal groups, or armed extremist or rebel groups.
(3)In countries where
there are particularly severe violations of freedom of the press, the annual
report shall address the following:
(A)Whether government
authorities of each such country participate in, facilitate, or condone such
violations of the freedom of the press.
(B)What steps the
government of each such country has taken to preserve the safety and
independence of the media, and to ensure the prosecution of those individuals
who attack or murder journalists.
(d)The
Annual Report shall be organized in three parts, as follows:
(1)Part I shall
consist of the identification of countries (and the associated assessment of
their efforts) under subsection (c)(1).
(2)Part II shall
consist of the identification of countries (and the associated assessment of
their efforts) under subsection (c)(2).
(3)Part III shall
consist of the identification of countries (and the associated assessment of
their efforts) under subsection (c)(3).
(e)The Secretary shall submit the Annual Report on May 3
of each year, declared by the United Nations General Assembly as World Press
Freedom Day, or the first day thereafter on which either House of Congress is
in session.
(f)The Annual Report shall
be submitted in unclassified form.
4.Freedom of the
press grant program
(a)The Secretary of State shall administer a grant program
with the aim of promoting freedom of the press worldwide. The grant program
shall be administered by the Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights and Labor as part of the Human Rights Democracy Fund (HRDF).
(b)Grants may be awarded to nonprofit and international
organizations in amounts ranging from $70,000 to $150,000 annually. Grants may
span multiple years, up to five years.
(c)Grant
proposals should promote and broaden press freedoms by strengthening the
independence of journalists and media organizations, promoting a legal
framework for freedom of the press, or through providing regionally and
culturally relevant training and professionalization of skills to meet
international standards in both traditional and digital media.
5.Authorization of
appropriationsThere is
authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of State $2,000,000 for each of
fiscal years 2010 to 2014 to carry out this Act.
6.In this Act:
(1)The term Annual Report
means the Annual
Report on the Status of Freedom of the Press Worldwide required under
subsection (a).
(2)The term media organization
means a
group or organization that gathers and disseminates news and information to the
public (through any medium of mass communication) in a foreign country in which
the group or organization is located, except that the term does not include a
group or organization that is primarily an agency or instrumentality of the
government of such foreign country. The term includes an individual who is an
agent or employee of such group or organization who acts within the scope of
such agency or employment.
(3)The
term Secretary
means the Secretary of State.