[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 79 (Friday, June 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1052]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  COMMENDING RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY ON RECEIVING FREEDOM OF 
                              SPEECH MEDAL

                                 ______
                                 

                               TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 13, 2002

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, although freedom and democracy are integral 
elements in the political systems of many countries, basic freedoms are 
still denied in many others and are not fully institutionalized in 
still others. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty targets these areas, 
including Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Russia, and 
other former communist states, in order to promote free speech and 
political dialogue.
  For more than fifty years, the organization has tirelessly supported 
free-thinking, freedom of expression, and democracy. Recently, the 
broadcasts have even been expanded to include and specifically target 
areas with large Muslim populations. In recognition of this history of 
work, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute awarded the 
``Freedom of Speech Medal'' to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on June 
8.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 
on receiving this award and recognize its outstanding work in promoting 
freedom. I earnestly commend the following acceptance speech given by 
my dear friend Thomas A. Dine, the President of RFE/RL, Inc., and 
request that the speech be placed in the Record.

     Accepting the Freedom of Speech Medal, Roosevelt Study Center 
                      Middelburg, the Netherlands

       Thank you for this wonderful, deeply meaningful award. It 
     is a great, great honor to receive the Roosevelt Foundation's 
     2002 Freedom of Speech medal. No name better animates and 
     exemplifies the work of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and 
     its daily commitment to freedom and democracy than Roosevelt.
       As President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, I accept 
     this award not only on behalf of the organization as it 
     exists today, but also on behalf of its achievements during 
     the Cold War and its importance as a fighting force in 
     promoting freedom and democracy in the future, applying the 
     highest journalistic standards of accuracy, balance, and 
     objectivity.
       Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has been battling for the 
     cause of free speech and expression for over 50 years.
       My colleagues and I will continue to fight as long as this 
     most fundamental of freedoms is being controlled or 
     suppressed in the countries to which we actively communicate 
     via radio, Internet, and television.
       Heading an entity called ``Radio Free Europe,'' I am often 
     asked, ``But isn't Europe free?'' It is true that the 
     collapse of communism and of the Soviet Union has brought 
     freedom to many parts of Europe that had been deprived of it 
     for too long. However, suppression of speech, press, and 
     assembly, sadly remains very much the rule on the European 
     continent.
       In Russia, for example, the Kremlin seems increasingly 
     determined to control as much of the media as possible. Most 
     recently, the government has coercively placed under its 
     control several prominent independent media outlets, from 
     television to radio to print, cloaking these power grabs as 
     business transactions. More ominously, over the course of the 
     last two years in Russia, 36 journalists have been killed or 
     have disappeared. And last week Russia's Minister of the 
     Press Lesin, in response to our daily news broadcasts in the 
     Chechen language, warned us to stop interfering in Russia's 
     domestic affairs.
       The President of Ukraine is no friend of the first freedom. 
     He is a likely suspect in the death of at least two reporters 
     who dared criticize his administration for corruption and 
     criminality. He is certainly responsible for a culture of 
     fear that pervades the Ukrainian media environment.
       The nation of Belarus is now under the thumb of the 
     dictator Alexander Lukashenka, a man who openly expresses 
     admiration for Stalin. Lukashenka ceaselessly harasses the 
     press; deaths and disappearances of journalists have taken 
     place in Belarus as well.
       And a final contemporary example of the dismal condition of 
     freedom of expression inside today's Europe exists in the 
     Balkans, where Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia are 
     still not out from under the intimidation and controlling 
     state grip of the Milosevic era.
       In response to the specific challenges we face in this 
     young century, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has expanded 
     the scope of its broadcasting across Europe and Asia. These 
     broadcasts address the most difficult, but perhaps the most 
     thrilling, battle yet for free speech: in areas populated by 
     Muslims in Southeast Europe, Russia, the northern and 
     southern Caucasus, Central Asia and Southwest Asia.
       The terrorist attacks of September 11th highlighted for all 
     of us the importance of the Muslim world in today's 
     geopolitical landscape. Accordingly, a majority of Radio Free 
     Europe/Radio Liberty's current 33 languages are targeted to 
     peoples that practice the Islamic religion.
       Our broadcasts now include Albanian and Bosnian to the 
     former Yugoslavia; Tatar and Bashkir to Russia's Volga River 
     region; Crimean Tatar to Ukraine; Avar, Chechen, and 
     Circassian to Russia's North Caucasus; Azeri to Azerbaijan 
     and Northern Iran; the languages of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, 
     Tajik, and Uzbek to Central Asia; Farsi throughout Iran; 
     Arabic to Iraq; and now Dari and Pashtu to Afghanistan.
       I am particularly proud of the latter two, Dari and Pashtu, 
     in which we are now broadcasting 10 1/2 hours a day to 
     Afghanistan in response to that crisis. Next week, we will 
     broadcast the Loya Jirga's deliberations live! Just as 
     importantly, we have also established a program to train 
     Afghan journalists in Kabul and Prague to help ensure that 
     the new Afghanistan will be graced with a robust free press 
     practicing the highest of professional standards.
       In closing, it is a particular honor, both for me 
     personally and for the organization I represent, to receive 
     this award from an organization bearing the Roosevelt name. 
     As President, Franklin Roosevelt instilled human rights in 
     our collective consciousness and injected human rights into 
     the center of our foreign policies.
       So did Eleanor Roosevelt through her tireless work helping 
     to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is no 
     coincidence that a 1950's photograph of the former First Lady 
     of the United States sitting in front of a Radio Liberty 
     microphone adorns my office wall in Prague.
       And it is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration that is 
     the motto of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, indeed all of 
     United States international broadcasting.
       It is a simple, but compelling and timeless pronouncement--
     ``Everyone has the right . . . to seek, receive, and impart 
     information and ideas through any media and regardless of 
     frontiers.''
       This motto appears on our stationery, in all of our 
     literature, on prominently placed hall plaques. It symbolizes 
     everything we strive to achieve.
       The more than 2,000 worldwide staffers of Radio Free 
     Europe/Radio Liberty are eternally grateful for receiving one 
     of this year's Four Freedom awards. I promise this Foundation 
     and this distinguished audience that we shall energetically 
     continue our mission of promoting freedom and democracy today 
     -- in order to expand freedom and democracy tomorrow.
           Thank you very much.
                                                   Thomas A. Dine,
                                           President, RFE/RL, Inc.

     

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