[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 173 (Thursday, December 13, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S13143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FREE SPEECH IN CZECH REPUBLIC

  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, as Chairman of the Commission on 
Security on Cooperation in Europe, I have a keen interest in the fight 
against organized crime and corruption in the 55-nation OSCE region. I 
have raised this issue at the meetings of the OSCE Parliamentary 
Assembly, at Commission hearings, and in meetings with United States 
Government and foreign officials.
  The impact of organized crime in the OSCE region is not limited to 
some far-off land. Organized crime and corruption directly bear on 
United States security, economic, and political interests at home and 
abroad. And at the OSCE Summit held in Istanbul in 1999, the Heads of 
State and Government of the participating States recognized that 
corruption poses a serious and great threat to OSCE shared values, 
cutting across security, economic, and human dimensions of the OSCE.
  One of the best tools at our disposal in advancing the fight against 
corruption is a free and independent press that can both investigate 
and report on possible corruption. Unfortunately, it is no surprise 
that journalists who report on issues related to corruption sometimes 
find themselves the victims of harassment and, in extreme cases, 
violence.
  Accordingly, I am disturbed by reports that the Czech Cabinet, led by 
Prime Minister Zeman, is seeking to have criminal charges brought 
against a political weekly, Respekt. Threats by the Prime Minister to 
shut down this publication followed the newspaper's coverage of the 
release of Transparency International's most recent report, Global 
Corruption Report 2001, in which the Czech Republic compared 
unfavorably to other former Communist countries in the region.
  In fact, Peter Holub, the editor of Respekt, is not the only Czech 
journalist to get into hot water for trying to report on corruption. In 
January 1998, journalist Zdenek Zukal was arrested in connection with 
his reporting on alleged corruption in the locality of Olomouc and 
charged with ``spreading alarming information.'' His case has dragged 
on for some four years without resolution.
  I understand the government's desire to get it's message out. But 
trying to achieve that goal by muzzling journalists and threatening 
them with jail time is not the way to do it. More to the point, it 
violates the OSCE commitments the Czech Republic has freely undertaken.

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