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Publications >> Democracy Newsletter
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National Endowment for Democracy News and Information Fall 2002 Newsletter
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Two NED Grantees Win Knight International Press Fellowship Award
Two NED grantees were recently recognized by the Knight International Press Fellows of the International Center for Journalists, for outstanding journalism under difficult and, at times, dangerous circumstances. Mahasen al-Emam of the Arab Women's Media Center in Jordan and Andrew Kromah of KISS 104FM Radio-Bo in Bo, Sierra Leone, were presented the prestigious 2002 Knight International Press Fellowship Award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on October 8.
In 1992, the armed rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF) destroyed Kromah's agricultural and mining investments and murdered 28 of his employees. He told the harrowing story at the Knight award ceremony: "I buried them in individual graves that same day and prayed for them, even while I was trapped behind enemy lines of conflict. But I was faced with the task of collecting information about the circumstances that led to their deaths, and informing their families. I gathered enough information and escaped to tell the families. That was my first journalism task. I explained my ordeal to the few newspapers that published the stories, but the government-owned radio station and newspaper never published it." It was then that Kromah pulled together his life savings and began Radio-Bo. Since 1992, Radio-Bo has grown to become the most reliable news source for the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans. One of the country's few independent and nonpartisan radio stations, Radio-Bo airs messages and programs promoting peace and provides updates on the democratic process to much of southern Sierra Leone and the rebel-held territories in the north. To increase public involvement in Sierra Leone's political discourse, Radio-Bo trained 28 "community animators." These individuals facilitate the formation of community-radio listening groups, encourage rural populations to listen and respond to radio programs, and serve as a link between the communities and producers who decide which issues to feature. At the NED luncheon, Kromah gave the following example of how Radio-Bo is improving daily life in Sierra Leone by providing the public with independent reporting. Following a storm that downed a power pole into a street where children often played, Radio-Bo learned that the downed lines still carried a live current, aired the story, and advised the electric company to remove the pole. The company failed to respond and a child was electrocuted soon afterwards. But Radio-Bo's continued and persistent coverage of the story ultimately pressured the electric company to remove the power pole. "That's our job, to make sure we move people to do something," Kromah told the audience. Fellow award-winner Mahassen al-Emam is widely considered to be the most pioneering female journalist in Jordan. She was Jordan's first female editor-in-chief, and when one newspaper refused to send her to cover the Iraq-Iran war, al-Emam financed her own way and returned with groundbreaking stories. She was the only Arab woman to cover that war. Working in a society restrictive of both the media and women, Al-Emam was inspired to establish the Arab Women's Media Center in 1999. The Center aims to strengthen the Jordanian press, train Arab women to work in the media, enhance the role of Arab women in the media, and educate the public about human rights and democracy. About 200 female NGO representatives have attended the Center's training sessions, which have focused on such themes as portrayal of women in the media, international conventions for women's rights, and relations between civic groups and the media. Al-Emam encourages participants to write articles and letters to the editor, and to make impromptu visits to the Center to access computers, media resources, and further training. She is also expanding the Center's reach by conducting regional training sessions. "Because I am a journalist, I believe in the sanctity of freedom of the press and freedom of opinion and expression, and the sky is the limit on those freedoms," al-Emam said at the NED luncheon. "It is useful to express, inform, and train on how we can be liberal with words and actions and we can practice this democracy and express a new path." [ Top ]
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Proposed Subversion Law in Hong Kong Concerns Leading Democrats
Hong Kong's leading democrat, Martin Lee, made a visit to Washington, D.C., in late October to raise a red flag over the Hong Kong government's recent move to implement a new "subversion law." Lee, who is an elected legislator and the Chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, was accompanied on his visit by NED grantee Law Yuk Kai, Chairman of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, a leading civil society organization that tracks and reports on human rights developments in Hong Kong.
Under Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law, the framework for governing the territory since the 1997 handover, Hong Kong is required to draft its own laws to protect against "treason subversion, secession, and sedition." Lee and Law's main concern is not that this law is going forward, but that the Hong Kong government is proceeding with undue haste and secrecy in submitting the new law, which it says it wants passed by July. The subversion law is currently still in the drafting process, due to finish in January. The government has not released the exact language of its draft law, making it impossible for experts and opposition legislators to comment on the bill. Lee says that once the bill is released to the public in January, it will be virtually impossible to make changes, making it crucial to push the Chinese and Hong Kong governments now for more public consultation and transparency before the final draft emerges. [ Top ]
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Chairman's Message
With these words, former Chilean Ambassador to the U.S. Genaro Arriagada introduced Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, one of the recipients of this year's Harriman Awards presented by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), to a large Washington audience. Arriagada, a member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy, knows all about dictatorship, having led the fight to end it in Chile over a decade ago. Few Americans have heard of Paya, and that is unfortunate, since he is the embodiment of the proposition that that one person with a noble idea and the courage to carry it out can make a large difference. Five years ago Paya founded Cuba's Varela Project, named for the 19th-century independence leader Padre Felix Varela. The Project uses a provision in the Cuban Constitution permitting citizens to introduce legislative initiatives when accompanied by at least 10,000 signatures of registered voters. It is hard for those who live in a free society such as ours to imagine what it must be like to conduct petition drives in a police state where the government not only monopolizes information (thus able to keep the campaign's existence unknown) but also intimidates anyone who dares to challenge the government to live up to its own hypocritical standards. Last May Paya and activists from 150 Cuban organizations delivered to the National Assembly more than 11,000 signatures, which legally bound the legislature to debate their petition. The petition calls for a national referendum on open elections, free speech, free enterprise, and freedom for political prisoners. The Cuban government responded promptly by suspending the Assembly's regular summer session and organizing a campaign of its own on behalf of its "revolution." Undeterred, Paya and his fellow democrats pushed on, and are now well over 30,000 signatures strong in enlisting the support of the Cuban people for fundamental human rights and a nonviolent political transition to democracy. Paya was deeply influenced by the 1968 "Prague Spring" democratic movement in what was then Czechoslovakia, and so it is fitting that his cause has been taken up internationally by Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel, who has nominated Paya for the Nobel Peace Prize. Unable to accept his Harriman Award in person, Paya offered a videotaped acceptance speech in which he humbly paid tribute to all those around the world "so united in the spirit of fighting peacefully for democracy." Asserting his determination to carry the project forward, Paya expressed his gratitude by noting, "Finally we see a light: the light of solidarity." Vin Weber Chairman [ Top ]
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Congressional Working Group Focuses on Democracy-Promotion
A bi-partisan group of House and Senate members founded the Democracy Promotion Working Group in January of 2002. The group seeks to support democracy activists around the world in their efforts to advance democracy and human rights, and to strengthen Congressional support for democracy-promotion activities.
Working closely with NED and drawing upon the expertise of many of NED's grantees, the group has focused its briefings on timely topics that are of great interest to a broad range of members, including the promotion of democracy in the Muslim world and using the Internet to promote democracy. Briefings have also focused on democratic developments and crises in specific countries, including Iran, Liberia, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Ukraine. "If you want to understand the value of promoting democracy abroad, there is no substitute for talking to the activists who have dedicated their lives to the cause," said the group's co-chair, Jack Reed. "The working group provides a forum for exchange, where we can learn about what's happening out there-but it's also an important opportunity to build solidarity with those who are risking a lot to secure rights we often take for granted." [ Top ]
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Journalism School Strengthens Independent Media in Serbia Budding Journalists in Multiethnic Southeastern Serbia Prepare to Confront Legacies of Milosevic Era Despite Slobodan Milosevic's fall from power in October 2000, Serbia's task of breaking with the legacy of his regime's authoritarian rule is far from finished. The security services continue to be directed by holdovers from the previous regime, and many people still in authority posts within the police and army are responsible for human rights abuses committed during the past 10 years. Indicted war criminals remain on the loose, corruption is endemic, and organized-crime figures continue to control large sectors of the economy, often in collusion with officials of the security services.
In an effort to improve the skills of these reporters, the School for Investigative Journalism was established in November 2001 as part of the Center for Interethnic Reconciliation in Belgrade. It is a unique training institute for young journalists from all ethnic backgrounds working in the print and electronic media. The school was founded with the assistance of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, a prominent human rights group led by noted activist Sonja Biserko. With NED support, the School has provided 300 young reporters, editors, and managers in the print and electronic media with the journalism education they need to address the challenges of their demanding professions. With an emphasis on investigative reporting, the program provides both theoretical and practical training during intensive three-month seminars held in six municipalities in the multiethnic regions of southeastern Serbia and the Sandzak. Courses focus on principles of professional journalism, basics of media management, and media technology. Students also gain on-the-job experience by developing, researching, and writing their own professional pieces of investigative journalism during internships with local print and electronic media organizations.
The school's training coordinator is Miroslav Filipovic, widely considered to be Serbia's most important investigative journalist. Filipovic was imprisoned by the Milosevic regime for five months in 2000, for "undermining state security" and "revealing state secrets" in his groundbreaking reporting on the activities of the army and police in Kosovo during the NATO bombing campaign in early 1999. Filipovic emphasizes that, in addition to providing training in the basics of good journalism, the school has another important objective: strengthening interethnic understanding, tolerance, and reconciliation. According to Filipovic, the program, which has brought together ethnic Albanian, Serb, Roma, Bosnian, and Bulgarian students, has succeeded in fostering respect and understanding. As proof, he offers the fact that following their training, dozens of ethnic-Albanian students, who have been isolated for years from Serbia's educational system, are opting to continue their journalism training in Serbian universities as opposed to institutions in the neighboring province of Kosovo or Albania. Clearly proud of the school's success in this area, Filipovic says, "Our school is the only place in the Balkans where young Albanians learn the Serbian language, and young Serbs learn Albanian, and they work together as friends." [ Top ]
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NED Cosponsors Discussion Concerning Prospects for Liberal Islam
What is Liberal Islam? How much support does it enjoy, and is this support likely to grow? Democracy scholars and activists from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States confronted these questions at a September 25 conference titled "Liberal Islam." Held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., the meeting was cosponsored by NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies and the Wilson Center's Middle East Project. Marc F. Plattner, codirector of the Forum, and Haleh Esfandiari, consulting director of the Middle East Project, organized the conference and moderated its two panel sessions. Keynote speaker Nurcholish Madjid, senior researcher at the University of Paramadina in Jakarta, explained how concepts of modernity, pluralism, and human rights do exist within the Islamic tradition. He argued that even when Muslims use modern secular institutions, their behavior can still be governed by Islamic ethical principles. Replying to a question, Madjid said that the main Islamic trend in Indonesia today is "moderation," adding that, unfortunately, "the radicals speak more loudly and get more press." He also noted that the principles of "life, property, and honor" found in Islamic thought are essentially the same concepts found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson.
Filali-Ansary traced the history of different strains of Islamic thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries, differentiating what some scholars have called "traditional," "revivalist," and "liberal" variants of Islam. And he argued that Muslim societies will need to democratize before they can undergo religious reformation (unlike Western societies, in which religious reformation preceded the democratic breakthrough). "We would like to have modernity, but on our own terms," Kubba replied, adding that the Muslim world needs to develop a healthy attitude toward a modern world that often seems to be developing outside its control. El-Affendi added, "First we need democracy…then the fundamentalists can have their views and we can have ours." The second panel, "How Much Support Does Liberal Islam Enjoy and Is This Support Likely to Grow?" featured a presentation by Ridwan Al-Sayid, the Shawwaf Visiting Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Harvard, and commentaries by Morad Saghafi, editor of Goft-o-goo ("Dialogue") quarterly magazine, and Radwan A. Masmoudi, founder and executive director of the Center of the Study of Islam and Democracy in Washington. Several conference participants are now revising their presentations for publication in the April 2003 issue of the Journal of Democracy. [ Top ]
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Japan Considering Creation of Democracy-Promotion Foundation
In an exciting development, Japan is seriously considering the creation of a democracy promotion foundation similar to NED and the democracy foundations of many other developed democracies. This was the topic of discussion at a November 13-14, 2002, conference in Tokyo titled "Enlightened Post Cold War Initiative for Peace Building and Democracy: Enhancing the Role of the Parliament and the NGOs." NED co-sponsored the meeting along with three Japanese host organizations, the Committee to Aid Democracy for Peace Building, the Diet League to Aid Democracy for Peace Building, and the Yukio Ozaki Memorial Foundation. Support for the conference was provided by the U.S.-Japan Foundation.
In his remarks at the meeting, Gershman commented on the prospective impact of a Japanese democracy foundation: "By establishing such a foundation, Japan can expand its role as a partner with other democracies in the defense of common values. As a bridge between Asia and the West, it can make a unique contribution to the strengthening of democratic culture and political stability throughout the world." [ Top ]
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"Axis of Evil: Belarus - the Missing Link" was the title of a half-day conference on October 14, 2002, organized by the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute and co-sponsored by NED and several other organizations. Along with a keynote address by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), panel discussions focused on Belarus' abysmal human rights record and its role as a rogue state. Barbara Haig, NED Vice President for Program, moderated a third panel focusing on "Belarus after Lukashenko" and featuring several leading Belarusian opposition figures. For more information on the meeting go to www.aei.org/nai. [ Top ]
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Taiwan's First Lady Receives Democracy Medal
On Wednesday, September 25, 2002, NED awarded its Democracy Service Medal to Taiwan's First Lady, Chen-Wu, Sue-jen. Presented by U.S. Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA), a member of the bi-partisan NED Board and the House Republican leadership, the Service Medal was given in recognition of Chen's great personal contribution to the establishment of full democracy in Taiwan.
The reception, which was held in the Russell Senate Building, was cosponsored by the bi-partisan Congressional leadership and the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, and included the participation of a wide range of U.S. Senators and Representatives, including Representatives Tom Delay (R-TX), Ben Gilman (R-NY), Gary Ackerman (D-NY), and Robert Wexler (D-FL); and Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Joseph Biden (D-DE), and Daniel Akaka (D-HI). Accepting the medal with spontaneous and heartfelt remarks, Chen thanked all those assembled for the recognition of what has often been a painful and personal struggle for her family. "This medal is very heavy-not just physically heavy, but heavy also for the meaning it represents," said Chen. "It represents all the work and struggles we have been through for the cause of democratization." Chen, who was paralyzed from the waist down in 1985, the result of a suspicious accident during a post-campaign tour with her husband, and who subsequently ran for and served in the legislature when her husband was imprisoned for opposing the Nationalist government, has never let adversity get in the way of her work for a democratic Taiwan. She pledged that Taiwan would soon establish its own democracy promotion foundation.
NED's relationship with the Republic of China goes back to 1995, when NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies co-sponsored, with Taiwan's Institute for National Policy Research, a conference on "Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies." The following year NED honored President Lee Teng Hui and the people of Taiwan at a Capitol Hill reception after it held its first direct presidential election. In the time that has passed since the founding of the National Endowment for Democracy, other democracies have created foundations with a similar mission, helping to make democracy promotion a truly global effort. NED welcomes Taiwan's entry into this important area of work. [ Top ]
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Highlights of Recent NED Grants
Burma Grantee will provide basic humanitarian assistance to prisoners and their families in Burma, document the abuse of political prisoners, highlight this issue to the international community, and provide education, rehabilitation, and basic medical care for former political prisoners. Ecuador Radio Ondas Azuayas Radio Ondas will conduct a series of training workshops for local journalists, particularly those from community radio stations in Azuay province, to improve their skills in reporting on elections and following up with elected officials after elections. To strengthen the station's civic programming, Radio Ondas will purchase equipment to enhance its programming capacity. Drawing on its own experience, Radio Ondas will also develop a model of effective civic-radio programming to share with other stations in Ecuador. Iraq American Society for Kurds (ASK) ASK will conduct a series of workshops, in Erbil and Sulaymania in northern Iraq, to help expand civic participation and advocate legislative reforms in the press law and municipal administration. ASK will conduct two one-month training workshops for women, two four-day workshops on press-law reform, and two three-day workshops on civic initiatives in local municipalities. Macedonia Association for Democratic Initiatives (ADI) ADI will conduct a comprehensive monitoring and advocacy program to ensure implementation of the minority- rights provisions contained within Macedonia's Framework Agreement. ADI and its monitoring network will organize a series of roundtables among local officials, party representatives, NGO representatives, ethnic-minority leaders, and ordinary citizens to encourage proper implementation of the Agreement at the municipal level. Based on the information gathered from its network, ADI will publish monthly reports that will assess implementation of the two Agreement provisions. Russia Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship The Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship will coordinate a network of correspondents in the Chechen Republic. Working throughout Chechnya, the correspondents will relay information to the Society's information centers in Nizhni, Novgorod, and Ingushetia, to be edited into press releases, redistributed to Russian and Western media outlets via the Internet, and published in a human rights newspaper. Southern Africa Regional The American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) ACILS will work with the Southern African Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC) to strengthen and professionalize the SATUCC secretariat, formulate an effective Regional Policy Initiative, develop an enhanced outreach program to affiliates, and conduct a union-to-union exchange program with U.S. and African counterpart organizations. [ Top ]
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