[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 148 (Thursday, September 6, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7878-H7879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1045
                    SHAWKAN AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak out in support of 
international press freedom and to highlight, in particular, two 
egregious cases of government assaults on the rights of journalists.
  This Saturday, a court in Egypt will decide whether to execute an 
award-winning photojournalist for doing his job. While in Myanmar, 
formerly known as Burma, the Nobel Prize-winning former political 
prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has overseen the imprisonment and 
sentencing of two Reuters reporters who were attempting to shed light 
on the atrocities committed by the Burmese military against the 
Rohingya minority.
  In Egypt, Mahmoud Abou Zeid, who is known professionally as Shawkan, 
was taken into custody along with two other journalists while 
photographing the violent dispersal of a protest in Rabaa Square on 
August 14, 2013. The other journalists were foreign nationals and were 
released within hours, while Shawkan, an Egyptian, has been abused and 
beaten, denied his freedom, due process, and adequate medical treatment 
ever since--simply for doing his job.
  In 2016, the U.N. Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary 
Detention issued a report on his case, calling his detention 
``arbitrary'' and recommending that he be released immediately.
  Shawkan received the 2018 UNESCO Freedom Prize and has been 
recognized by press freedom organizations worldwide for his outstanding 
contributions to the profession in the face of danger.
  In July, I sent a letter to President Sisi of Egypt urging him to 
support the immediate release of Shawkan or, at the very least, to 
support an individual trial instead of the mass trial that serves as a 
basis of his detention so that evidence specific to his case can be 
heard and considered. The Egyptian Government has not responded to this 
letter, and they are planning to sentence Shawkan as early as this 
weekend.
  Unfortunately, Egypt is not alone in its harassment and imprisonment 
of members of the press. Just this week a Burmese court sentenced Wa 
Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, reporters working for Reuters, to 7 years in 
prison following their arrest while reporting on the mass killing of 10 
Rohingya Muslim men in the village of Inn Din, Rakhine State, last 
September.
  This decision is a significant step backward in Burma's transition to 
democracy and reflects poorly on the Aung San Suu Kyi government's 
commitment to those same democratic ideals for which he was punished 
not so long ago.
  The freedom to express oneself is a fundamental right enshrined in 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The freedom of the press and 
the public's right to information are paramount to the success of a 
democracy. The censorship and degradation of the press is among the 
most effective tools for oppression and control.
  Thomas Jefferson captured this sentiment when he said, and I 
paraphrase, if forced to choose, he would prefer newspapers without a 
government rather than a government without newspapers.
  Today, authoritarian rule has targeted members of the press in order 
to stifle dissent and maintain power. According to Freedom House, only 
13 percent of the world's population enjoys a free press. Global press 
freedom has declined to its lowest point since 2013 amid unprecedented 
threats to journalists in major democracies and attempts by 
authoritarian states to control the media, even beyond their borders.
  We are witnessing a new era in press suppression as even politicians 
in democracies attempt to shape news coverage by undermining 
traditional media outlets, exerting influence over public broadcasters, 
and favoring friendly private outlets.
  Unfortunately, the current President of the United States has led the 
charge against the press with nearly daily tirades against the media, 
branding them as the enemy of the state and rejecting the news media's 
role in holding public servants accountable. Just

[[Page H7879]]

yesterday, President Trump suggested he would like to change libel laws 
in order to prevent negative news stories about himself, a tactic more 
suited to Russian or Iranian leadership than the world's greatest 
democracy.
  And let there be no doubt that leaders around the world take note of 
the President's attacks on the press. They know that the Trump 
administration has no interest in lecturing them about their human 
rights abuses and no leg to stand on if it did.
  So the Egypts and Burmas of the world will continue to ignore 
national norms while the Trump administration looks the other way or 
worse. That is why, as Members of Congress, it is absolutely imperative 
that we remind the world that, no matter what the President says, we 
have not forgotten our values, those universal values that apply to 
every man, woman, and child. We must remain vigilant and defend against 
even the smallest attacks on the free and independent press, because 
the loss of this freedom creeps slowly like a cancer on our democracy.
  I urge the Governments of Egypt and Burma to do the right thing and 
end their attacks on the media and release Shawkan, Wa Lone, Kyaw Soe 
Oo, and all other political prisoners. I will continue to use my voice 
to advocate for them and the hundreds of other journalists around the 
world whose freedoms are at risk because of their work and because of 
what they do every day, and I hope my friends on both sides of the 
aisle will join me in this effort.

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