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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
The Fund For Free Expression
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Human Rights Watch World Report 1992
Human Rights Watch: The Fund for Free Expression
</hdr>
<body>
<p> The Fund for Free Expression is the only one of the six
divisions of Human Rights Watch focused not on a region but on
a theme--freedom of expression around the world and in the
United States. In 1991, the Fund expanded its program to:
</p>
<p>-- emphasize the relationship between censorship and global
social problems.
</p>
<p>-- investigate and analyze restrictions on freedom of
expression in the United States.
</p>
<p>-- work with the regional divisions of Human Rights Watch and
other organizations on freedom of expression issues around the
world.
</p>
<p>-- campaign against human rights abuses involving the academic
community.
</p>
<p>The Fund also administered a second round of grants, made
possible by a legacy from writers Lillian Hellman and Dashiell
Hammett, to writers around the world who have been victimized
by political persecution.
</p>
<p>Censorship and Global Problems
</p>
<p> The Fund emphasizes the connection between freedom of
expression and global social problems such as AIDS, famine and
environmental degradation to establish that censorship and
information policies are important elements in the debate about
these issues. The first such global study, Off Limits:
Censorship and Corruption, was published in July. It documents
the extent to which a taboo topic for the press in many
countries is the wealth accumulated by heads of state--and
their families and associates--during their terms in office.
Corrupt regimes resort to censorship about their own self-
enrichment because they realize that their very maintenance in
office is at stake: widespread anger over revelations of
corruption played a major role in the downfall of the regime of
Erich Honecker in East Germany and the Tiananmen Square
uprising in China. The report examines the means by which
information is kept from public scrutiny through case studies
of six countries around the world, including the bribery of
government critics in Zaire, a climate of self-censorship in
Paraguay, and expulsions of foreign correspondents in Indonesia.
</p>
<p> In the first half of 1992, the Fund will publish two other
thematic reports. One concerns the censorship of minority
languages around the world--including the movement to
establish English as the official language of the United States.
The other, undertaken in cooperation with the Natural Resources
Defense Council, will be a series of case studies on the
persecution and harassment of individuals and organizations
working to protect the environment in a number of countries.
</p>
<p>Freedom of Expression and the Gulf War
</p>
<p> The Fund played an important role in documenting, analyzing
and challenging restrictions on freedom of expression imposed
in connection with the war in the Persian Gulf. The U.S.
Defense Department imposed severe curbs on the right of the news
media to cover military operations. Reporters were required to
travel in "pools" accompanied by military escorts, and to submit
all dispatches for advance review by a military censor. In
apparent deference to Saudi Arabia, the staging ground for
allied operations, the Pentagon censored publications sent to
U.S. troops in the Gulf, limited what they could say or write
about a variety of topics, and impeded their freedom to engage
in Jewish and Christian worship.
</p>
<p> On January 10, the Fund, joined by six other U.S. anti-
censorship organizations, wrote to Defense Secretary Richard
Cheney to express opposition to the new rules, arguing that no
case had been made for the imposition of more onerous
restrictions than were in place during the entire Vietnam War,
when reporters could travel freely on their own and file
reports without submitting them to military censors. The letter
asserted that "it is precisely in times of national crisis such
as war that the freedom of the press and the public's right to
know, on which our constitutional system of self-government
depends, becomes most vital." The Fund also participated as
amicus curiae in the lawsuit The Nation Magazine v. U.S.
Department of Defense, a challenge to the constitutionality of
these rules.
</p>
<p> Shortly before the onset of the war, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) began to interview Arab-American
individuals and organizational officials, ostensibly to gather
information about possible terrorist activity in the United
States. These interviews were widely criticized by Arab-American
groups and civil rights and liberties organizations, including
the Fund, which in a January 15 letter to Attorney General
Richard Thornburgh argued that "such an approach presumes the
disloyalty of millions of Arab-Americans and persons of Arab
origin lawfully residing in the United States, and has a
chilling effect on their rights to take part in the public
debate over the appropriateness of U.S. actions in the Persian
Gulf."
</p>
<p> On January 28, less than two weeks after the start of the
war, the Fund issued a newsletter, "Freedom of Expression and
the War," which analyzed the Pentagon's press restrictions and
policies affecting speech and expression by military personnel,
and the FBI's questioning of Arab-Americans. On February 27,
the Fund issued a supplement, "Managed News, Stifled Views."
Among the abuses documented by the Fund newsletters were the
detention at gunpoint of reporters who attempted to leave the
official press pools and excessive delays in approving material
submitted for prior security reviews or excision of material
that was embarrassing to the military.
</p>
<p> The Fund also criticized other governments for managing the
news to maintain or manufacture consensus for their role in the
war. Iraq imposed government escorts on foreign correspondents,
and censors monitored and screened their reports before
transmission. No foreign journalist was permitted to visit
Kuwait from the August 2 invasion until after the cease-fire.
Saudi Arabia banned or censored all foreign publications, with
particular attention to articles that mentioned civilian
bombing casualties or were deemed to favor the Palestine
Liberation Organization. Egypt, Morocco and Turkey--the other
principal U.S. allies in the region which backed the coalition's
war effort in the face of substantial popular opposition--moved to disguise the extent of their role and to quash dissent.
</p>
<p> Turkish state television, for example, used much of CNN's
material on the war, but when the coverage turned to such
matters as U.S. strikes at Iraq from Turkish bases or the
shortage of gas masks in Turkey, programming was interrupted
for a "commercial break" or footage of a scenic waterfall.
Raids from Turkish air bases were never mentioned in any
official statement or on state television or radio.
</p>
<p> The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights reported that as
many as two hundred political activists and students were
detained in Egypt. Israel closed press offices in its occupied
territories and arrested the Palestinian writer and peace
activist Sari Nusseibeh on "spying" charges which were widely
believed to be spurious. Fearing mass protests, King Hassan of
Morocco ordered sports events canceled and schools closed, and
threatened agitators with trials by military tribunals. The
newest U.S. ally, Syria, detained eighty writers and
intellectuals for expressing support for Iraq.
</p>
<p> In Great Britain, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
blocked a documentary on the export to Iraq of British-built
superguns, on the grounds that the "tone is wrong." France
banned the distribution, publication or sale of three
publications deemed pro-Iraq, on the grounds that they "defend
interests that are contrary to France's interests" concerning
the war, and expelled one of the editors. The Australian
Broadcasting Corporation faced a government inquiry following
complaints from Prime Minister Bo