"Unfortunately, the ringing provisions or Article 19 are more honored around the world in the breach than in the observance. According to New York-based Freedom House, only about a third of the world's 180-plus nations have a fully free press. The rest are about evenly divided between those with just a partly free press and the with no press freedom.
"We all know the world is a long way from achieving the idealistic promise of universal human rights but the Universal Declaration for 50 years has been the strongest statement of fundamental freedoms and human rights, a common standard against which all nations are measured.
"Restriction of news and information is an isolationist policy that will be overwhelmed by the march towards freedom exemplified by the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall. More concretely, it is likely to be overwhelmed even sooner by the Internet, and direct satellite broadcasting to tiny receiver dishes.
"In this Information Age, no country can participate in the global debate of ideas, in global markets or the global economy without allowing news, information and new ideas to cross its borders. Freedom for ideas and information to travel everywhere is as essential to peace and economic progress for all nations, all people, today as it was 50 years ago.
Mr. Ottaway is chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee, chairman of Ottaway Newspapers Inc. and senior vice president of Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Journal. (2)
Asad Latif, Senior Leader and Feature Writer, The Strait Times, wrestles with the concept of Asian values:
"To me there is a very basic point about Asian values in journalism and it is this: journalistic integrity is a universal value, but authenticity is a local one. Things like the spirit of enquiry, respect for facts, accuracy, an effort to present diverse points of view on an issue to reflect its complexity - these values are universal, no matter how badly they are mauled in practice in the West or in Asia."
He says authenticity is rather different. It involves the effort to situate one's work, to place it in context, and that context is local and cultural. A Western journalist may run around in Asia without fouling any of the principles of the profession. This is because he represents--more accurately "re-presents" - the world to Asians in "a continuing dialectic of information and control whose origins are essentially Occidentals. He cannot help but represent the world to Asians with a Western perspective. It's not wrong; what else can he do? He cannot re-present the world as an Asian, even though he may be, and usually is, a person of integrity. Authenticity is a different challenge."
