Abstract
Anyone looking for an impartial view on censorship need not pick up this book. Joel Simon has spent most of his career as a champion for free expression, and here he collects examples of suppression of speech from around the world. As Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), he has firsthand knowledge of subtle forms of censorship and extreme examples of journalists who have been murdered in the pursuit of truth. This text is a work of advocacy, and Simon’s thesis is clearly stated in the introduction:
We need to fight both to keep the Internet open and to ensure justice for journalists who are killed. We need to deploy new technologies to help people in repressive societies circumvent censorship and fight to get imprisoned journalists out of jail. More broadly, we need a robust international framework that recognizes the crucial role that information plays in the new global order and provides redress for people everywhere who are unable to access the information to which they are legally entitled. Simon does not lack for examples. According to CPJ research, the number of journalists imprisoned and killed around the world has reached an all-time high. War and violent upheavals often account for journalists’ deaths. Twenty-eight journalists died in 2012 in Syria alone. Countries well known for the suppression of free expression are all in the book: Pakistan, Mexico, Iraq, China, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Colombia, and the Philippines figure prominently. Included in the text are well-known stories (such as the 2002 capture and murder of Daniel Pearl) and the less familiar cases (including the 2005 murder of Philippine journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat). The cases are well documented. The author has interviewed dozens of people connected with the cases and, in some instances, has a personal connection with events. The book begins with his personal account of being in Pakistan when Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. military forces. Simon is able to provide a perspective of the events unfolding in Pakistan but, more importantly, the media coverage of the events.
The book highlights a number of interesting paradoxes. In an age when technology makes access to information easier than ever before, there is a tremendous threat that essential information will be kept from the public. The Internet makes it possible for individuals (who have no connection to established media) to become the reporters who provide us with information, but the major media outlets (which have scaled back operations to save money) increasingly rely on these independent sources of news. The book devotes a chapter to the thorny problem of defining who is a journalist (with special attention to Julian Assange). Simon introduces the term democratators to describe the increasing presence of popularly elected autocrats who want to be perceived as democratic but who exercise control over their citizens and the media. Simon differentiates between dictators and democratators by explaining that the new group of nation leaders have the support of the majority of their citizens by claiming to be democratic while manipulating and managing information. He cites as the quintessential examples Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Terrorism plays an important role in the threats to journalist safety. As early as 1985, Associated Press reporter Terry Anderson was kidnapped in Lebanon. Anderson was eventually released, but Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was not so lucky in 2002. Simon asserts that one of the most disturbing things about Pearl’s death is the fact that the motive for his kidnapping and murder still remains a mystery. In the years since, a variety of terrorist groups have seen journalists as convenient targets: the means to an end of getting out their message. Internet distribution has only made it more appealing to terrorists to kidnap journalists and stream the video for all to see, often culminating in a horrific murder.
The book is not just a story of gloom. The concluding chapter provides a glimmer of hope in the form of 10 strategies for guaranteeing the free flow of information. Unfortunately for most readers, 6 of the proposals are the purview of national governments or international monitoring organizations. The final suggestion, and one that every reader can support, is the creation of a “grand coalition” of individuals and organizations that support free expression. This call to action will resonate with those who support global efforts for freedom of expression.
Joel Simon is a defender of global free expression. The New Censorship: Inside the Battle for Global Media Freedom provides ample evidence that there is cause for concern and that others who want to protect a free flow of information need to join in the fight.