The "American Allies Press Freedom Act"
Stop US allies from censoring American journalists located in allied countries
Did you know that American journalists in Israel are required to submit their stories to the Israeli Military Censor before they can be published to their audience back in America?
Proposal: Stop Allies like Ukraine and Israel from censoring American Citizens
Here’s a proposal to make sure that American journalists stationed in an allied country that receives US foreign aid are exempt from local censorship laws when they try to communicate with their fellow Americans.
The Intercept inspired this proposal. It describes some of the restrictions the Israeli censor imposes on journalists reporting from within Israel:
Censorship Examples (Israel):
Language like “war crimes” and “genocide” are taboo words.
Bombings are reported as “blasts” and may not be attributed to anyone, unless Israel wants to take responsibility for them.
Information provided by Israel is approved quickly and information from Palestinians is heavily scrutinized and processed slowly.
The Intercept also published a similar story about Ukrainian press freedom.
Within a couple months, Ukrainian authorities began to pull credentials from reporters whose coverage they didn’t like, including Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times, who was the lead reporter on an April 2022 story about Ukrainian forces using banned cluster munitions, and New York Times photojournalist Tyler Hicks. (The Intercept)
American Allies: Accurate Perception
I don’t know what the rules are in Egypt and Ethiopia, etc but I believe that American journalists located there should be able to report freely too, lest Americans get a false impression about what is happening in these US allied countries.
Elsewhere:
I’ve written more about Israeli censorship in another post, and how to see through the propaganda:
