By Maira Magro
President Barack Obama signed a law this week requiring the State Department to monitor press freedom in all countries and to identify those governments that commit violations, The New York Times reports.
The new law is called the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, named for the reporter for The Wall Street Journal killed in Pakistan shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It requires the State Department to expand its monitoring of media restrictions and intimidation as part of its annual reports on human rights in countries throughout the world, Peter Baker writes.
The Times notes irony in the fact that the White House restricted the media's access to the signing of the free press bill to a small pool of reporters and photographers. The Obama administration, which has frustrated journalists on several fronts, is also seeking to force Times reporter James Risen to name his sources for a book about secret efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear arms program, the Times points out.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
