THE US REPORT

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights

I recently chatted with a young man from Eastern Europe. He’s in the US right now as an exchange student. We talked about everything from the Internet to how hard it is for someone in Ukraine to get a cool cell phone for a reasonable amount of money. Small talk eventually migrated to American media. I asked him to tell me honestly what he thought of my country. “I like it here,” he said. I told him I regret the beating the US takes from global media, and then I planted a thought. “You know we’re at a disadvantage because our media isn’t controlled by our government.”

Dirty linen in the US closet doesn’t stay in a dark corner for long. A free press can criticize, praise and divulge at will as long as the material isn’t classified for national security purposes, and even that material will sometimes make its way into the public debate. Criticizing government is an American tradition—we can thank a printer, John Peter Zenger, for publishing criticism of  the governor of New York in the 1730s. Zenger was put on trial for libel. To the governor’s dismay, Zenger won the suit. After all, what he had published was true.

Without a free press, there is no true freedom. At this moment, in Myanmar, thousands are suffering because sufficient aid workers aren’t allowed in and nor is media. A second storm may hit the area. The world can't even know the true extent of the need because the military government will not allow it. In Darfur, we know as much of the story as we are able to get and we know enough to realize that human rights have been completely incinerated. In Iran and in many other countries where one faith governs all, women are at risk for wearing makeup, for freedom of movement, even for studying Western literature.

For all my life, I have been an animal lover. I have yet to find a species that does not seek freedom. Even plants have this capability—how many times have I wandered my back yard to find some small sprout of a long ago bedding plant or bush trying so hard to claim a small amount of dirt so it can simply live. For humans, there can be no true freedom without freedom of the press. The United Nations should take up this issue regardless of religious or political fallout, and so should every other global organization with a human rights mission.

The US isn’t perfect. Our media frequently points that out and other media around the world love to point that out. It would be a good thing if media could peek into the closet corners of every country in the world—it would be a significant first step to freedom and to protecting rights for every person. And perhaps it would be a significant first step towards global peace as well.

For too long, the world has bought into what it’s told in countries without a free press. Now is the time for others in the world to have the opportunity to speak for themselves without fear of imprisonment or losing their heads. Why we don't hear more outcries from all human rights organizations about this subject is a mystery.

(--filed by Kay B. Day. This post is a participatory effort on behalf of Bloggers Unite for Human Rights sponsored by Blog Catalog and Amnesty International. To learn more, click the graphic in the column at right.)

For a list of posts by participating bloggers, visit the Blog Catalog website.