Protecting freedom of expression--via the Web
Grigory Pasko's story isn't as rare as it ought to be.
Pasko, a captain in the Russian Navy, is in prison and facing trial for treason because of reporting he did for Boyevaya Vakhta (Battle Watch), the newspaper of Russia's Pacific Fleet.
His "crime" was writing stories about the Russian military's alleged dumping of radioactive waste at sea. He has been in prison for 14 months without bail, and he faces up to 20 more years.
His story, covered in the Jan. 31 edition of The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), is also getting notice on the Web, thanks to numerous organizations that spread the word about threats to freedom of expression worldwide.
These groups, perhaps more than any others on the Internet, demonstrate the power of this global computer network to alert people to human rights abuses and give them a means to fight back.
By spreading the news quickly and across the globe. these organizations make it more difficult for authoritarian regimes (and supposedly democratic countries like Russia) to interfere with the work of journalists.
Pasko is not alone -- either in terms of the support he's getting via the Internet or in terms of the number of fellow journalists who find themselves in similar jeopardy.
The International Freedom of Expression Exchange, or IFEX,includes members from dozens of countries and distributes "action alerts" to individuals and groups around the world. On a recent day, the IFEX Web site (http://www.ifex.org/) listed a whopping 4,137 alerts.
Here are a few other sites I've encountered on the Web that focus on press freedom. As always, feel free to post URLs for others in the discussion area or send them to me directly at leasefinn@earthlink.net.
***Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (http://www.ccpj.ca/) produces one of the best sites on the Web concerning threats to freedom of expression.
The site, which is international in scope, includes reports and periodic updates on journalists in Canada and around the world who've been harmed or detained because of their work. The site offers sample protest letters, links to other press freedom sites on the Web, and summaries of the group's annual International Press Freedom Awards.
***The Index on Censorship, based in the United Kingdom, offers a country-by-country update of freedom of speech abuses.The site includes link to other press organizations and an interesting round-up of free speech abuses on the Internet. It's at http://www.indexoncensorship.org/.
***PEN American Center (http://pen.org/) also provides frequent reports on threats to freedom of expression around the world. Alerts can be found in its "Freedom to Write" sectionl. Links to other PEN sites worldwide can also be found on this site.
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