New York, New York
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you so much. It’s great to be back in this momentous chamber. And thanks to Michelle, for emceeing today and for that introduction.
Thank you also to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay for inviting me to be part of this great event today, and for leading UNESCO’s efforts to protect culture and education – from rebuilding Mosul’s old city to rehabilitating schools in Beirut after the 2020 blast.
It’s partly because of UNESCO that World Press Freedom Day exists. As many of you know, May 3 honors the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, produced in 1991 by African journalists attending a UNESCO seminar on press freedom in Namibia. They wrote that an “independent, pluralistic, and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy.”
But back then, as is true today, being a journalist took immense courage. Their work could bring them face to face with the worst of humanity, and sometimes placed them in the crosshairs of violence. So thirty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly created World Press Freedom Day to honor that courage, and call on the world to protect journalists from the threats that they face.
At that very moment, thousands of miles away, I was about to experience analogous threats firsthand. I had just published my first story in print as a reporter in U.S. News and World Report, on a safe area in north-western Bosnia. I was preparing to move to Bosnia to cover the war as a stringer. While other journalists, especially Bosnian journalists, faced far greater threats than I, I still remember the close calls of those years – the shrapnel bursting through the window of an apartment where I was typing up my story; the mortar attack that flattened a house just a few doors down; the snipers who targeted us as we roamed around the city of Sarajevo in search of interviews, trying to tell the story of a people being besieged. I made it home relatively unscathed, I was incredibly lucky but I had close friends who were targeted and kidnapped in the line of duty.
When I returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina last year as USAID Administrator, I spoke with the editor-in-chief at the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje. Oslobodjenje published the news every single day throughout the three and a half year siege of Sarajevo – even when their building was bombed and reduced to rubble in 1992. The paper, Oslobodjenje, became a symbol of courage and resilience around the world. Yet, this editor told me, “I lived through the war. I reported on it every day. And the threats I’m facing as a journalist today are so much greater than what I faced back then.” That is what she said last year.
So much greater than what she faced back then. And back then, was a war – a full fledged war.
For many of you journalists who are here in the audience or watching online, her words probably resonate.
Since 1993, the number of journalists detained or arrested has more than tripled – most recently with Evan Gershkovich’s wrongful, deplorable detention by the Russian Federation. Putin is targeting journalists elsewhere, as well – like in Ukraine, where his forces have shelled broadcasting towers, seized editorial offices, and killed nine journalists since last February 24th. All told, at least 67 news workers around the world were killed last year – nearly a 50 percent increase from the year before. And perpetrators of such crimes are rarely brought to justice, making it likely that these trends will continue.
USAID, the Agency I’m now privileged to serve as Administrator at, has long worked to protect journalists across the globe. In Burma, which is the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists, we’re helping threatened newsrooms relocate to safer locations, and providing digital security training to journalists and sources at risk of online attacks. When Putin invaded Ukraine, we provided journalists with flak jackets, helmets, and satellite phones. And in Mexico, which saw at least 13 journalists killed last year, USAID is helping prosecutors develop case management systems and investigative techniques to bring perpetrators to justice.
But for today’s journalists and media organizations, staying in business is another growing challenge.
Today nearly three quarters of internet users in the European Union, for example, get their news online – and social media is a leading news source from Kenya to Chile to Malaysia. Journalists compete for every story, and outlets for every ad dollar – not just with other outlets, but with tech giants like Facebook and Google, which in 2022 captured nearly half of global digital advertising revenue.
As a result, thousands of independent news outlets have shut down – in this country, the U.S. alone, roughly two a week have shut down since the COVID pandemic began – this is something that some are calling a “media extinction event.” Other news organizations are propped up or taken over by repressive or self-serving elites, they are often repurposed to spread propaganda. When this happens, people tend to get their information either from state-funded outlets – which have incentives, or sometimes even directives, to spread propaganda – or from social media, where disinformation can run rampant. Autocrats and extremists thrive in this media landscape. Democracies do not.
Today, USAID is bringing in new partners to help us prevent media extinction events. At the last Summit for Democracy, which President Biden chaired, we welcomed Microsoft into a three-way partnership with Internews to create something called a Media Viability Accelerator, this will expand access to media market research and help smaller media organizations access data on media markets, shift their business models to digital-first, and produce engaging content to attract new audiences. News outlets can’t be truly independent if they are financially dependent on government or donor funding.
But a more insidious threat, even, is growing: legal attacks, or what we might call “lawfare.” When I spoke with a group of journalists during my first week at USAID, they actually identified lawsuits – for libel, defamation, copyright infringement, and other charges – as the biggest impediment to their work.
Such lawsuits can be devastating. In Serbia, the investigative outlet KRIK has exposed several corruption schemes – an impressive feat, given that the organization has an operating budget in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But since 2021, KRIK has faced twelve lawsuits – for KRIK, I want to stress, that is actually more lawsuits than they have employees – and the damages totaled three times the organization’s annual budget, three times.
To withstand lawfare, journalists and media outlets need robust protection – they need training in how to avoid lawsuits altogether, they need resources to hire lawyers and cover legal fees. But often journalists can not get these protections. Many independent outlets can’t afford to be sued, so they are driven out of business or they try to self-censor to avoid attracting the interest of those who might target them. And corrupt leaders know all this, which is why they are using lawfare more and more. With one recent survey finding that nearly half of journalists who responded to the survey questions were facing or had faced legal threats. For years, repressive or corrupt elites have tried to silence opposition by killing journalists; now, they are trying to kill journalism.
To protect journalists and journalism, USAID has partnered with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Cyrus R. Vance Center, as well as law firms offering pro bono support, to create something, which I hope you will go forth and talk about, called Reporters Shield. Reporters Shield is an innovative new program to defend investigative reporting and civil society advocates from lawsuits that are meant to drive them out of business or to deter their hard hitting reporting.
Reporters Shield covers the cost of legal defense for journalists, civil society activists, and organizations battling lawsuits meant to silence their reporting or their investigations. Reporters Shield is more than a legal protection program. It will also help journalists avoid lawsuits by providing resources for pre-publication legal review. And it will connect journalists with qualified lawyers to help them navigate the legal process.
Now, today, I’m pleased to announce that starting immediately, media outlets and civil society organizations around the world can apply to the program to cover their reporters and staff members. Applications will be reviewed in phases, with journalists in some regions able to receive benefits as early as next month, with other regions launching later this year and in 2024. You can find more information and apply to the program on reporters-shield.org.
Reporters Shield is going to grow stronger as more individuals and organizations join us in supporting it, whether that is through funding or providing pro bono legal support.
So please, I would appeal to you to raise awareness of this new initiative, Reporters Shield. I urge everyone to join us in protecting journalism against threats, both well-worn threats and these newer threats. I urge everyone to hold accountable those that murder and imprison news workers. To financially support independent media organizations. As citizens to consume the important content that these independent media organizations produce. To help reporters defend themselves against lawfare.
In doing so, in doing any one of these things, you will help our broader effort: to build a world where reporters need not be so brave. Where their work must stand up only to counterarguments, rather than bankruptcy or bailiffs or bullets. Where they don’t need protection just for reporting the news. Because in the words of the Windhoek Declaration, only when journalists are truly free can democracy thrive.
Thank you so much.