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Maggie Haberman: What does she know and when will she tell us?
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Maggie Haberman: What does she know and when will she tell us?
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Every month I receive “Journalists in Trouble,” a dispatch from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), an organization based in Prague that “promote[s] democratic values by providing accurate, uncensored news and open debate in countries where a free press is threatened and disinformation is pervasive.”
The monthly missive lists RFE/RL journalists that have been detained, imprisoned or made the ultimate sacrifice while reporting in repressive regimes where freedom of press is mostly nonexistent.
September’s edition includes the story of Ihar Losik, who is serving 15-years in Belarus in “a hard labor colony” on government-fabricated charges of “organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order” and “preparation for participation in riots.”
Andrey Kuznechyk is in the same labor colony in Belarus. This June, “Kuznechyk was sentenced to six years in a maximum-security prison on charges of ‘creating or participating in an extremist organization.’”
These courageous journalists risk their careers, their economic futures and their very lives to expose government corruption and other hard truths the world needs to hear. Contrast their valor with some U.S. journalists who, even with the protection of our First Amendment, would rather withhold valuable reporting for a later date, a date that often corresponds to the day their new book is released and they cash their mammoth publisher’s advance.
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