Censored Part 3 — The Deadliest Profession
My colleagues and I traveled to the Oslo Freedom Forum to meet with a diverse group of policy makers, artists, journalists, writers, entrepreneurs, activists, hackers, and diplomats. What follows is the first of a series of conversations with some of the world’s most prominent experts on the global fight for free expression, and the role that technology plays on both sides of the struggle.
Few things clarify your position in the social pecking order better than insulting the king. Either you get away with it, in which case good for you — best not to test royal tolerance twice. Or you don’t, and you probably won’t remain free or alive long enough to repeat the mistake. I recently spoke to two people who attempt this experiment almost daily.
In the case of Ahmed Benchemsi, the Moroccan magazine editor and writer, I mean that quite literally. Benchemsi created one of the most popular magazines in Morocco in part by his witty, pop culture-infused mockery of the various and banal corruptions that exist in most monarchies. He fearlessly lambasted Morocco’s King Mohamed VI, who, as it turns out, has a slightly thinner skin than Benchemsi originally thought. After a decade of state harassment in response to his “seditious” opinions, Benchemsi had to leave his native country. He now lives in the US, where he works for a human rights organization.
In the case of Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, a Mexican investigative journalist, the reigning kings in question are the powerful drug cartels that have plunged Mexico into a prolonged period of violence and lawlessness. Nieto’s coverage often exposes the Mexican government’s negligence — indeed, often its complicity — in drug-related violence, and to hear her talk about the constant surveillance and threats she faces would make even the toughest war correspondent blanche. She barely flinches when she explains that in Ciudad Juarez, which recently was the murder capital of the world, to be a journalist is to be a target.
The sword, at least in the short term, is often much mightier than the pen. The institutions that depend on controlling the flow of information in their favor — organized crime, corrupt governments — understand this paradigm very well, which is why censorship and intimidation are such powerful and frequently deployed tactics against journalists.
Thousands of journalists around the world face regular surveillance, harassment, and violence from repressive governments. And while new technology is empowering journalists to reach new, broader audiences and to conduct more thorough investigations, the problem of governments suppressing journalists seems to be getting worse. Freedom House’s most recent report on the state of press freedom in the world concludes that press freedom has been declining sharply over the past decade, with only 14% of people in the world having access to a free press. In other words, the vast majority of people in the world receive information from journalists who have to fear the governments on which they report.
The old epigram that truth is first casualty of war only got it half right. Truth often survives the battle, but the tellers of that truth aren’t always so lucky.
To hear more from Sandra Nieto and Ahmed Benchemsi listen to our full interviews below. Special thanks goes out to Human Rights Foundation, organizers of Oslo Freedom Forum.
