When: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 10:00 am
Where: Longworth House Office Building, Room 1629
Who: Leading democracy activists including: Dr. David Tian, Global Internet Consortium; Dr. Yang Jianli, Harvard Fellow & President, Initiatives for China; Michael Horowitz, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow; Mark Palmer, Former Ambassador to Hungary; Members of Congress TBA.
A coalition of pro-democracy advocates will deliver a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton following a press conference on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 1629 Longworth HOB.
The Chinese government’s recent interference with private citizens’ Google accounts has brought worldwide attention to Internet censorship. The struggle to deal with a rising tide of Internet censorship is not limited to Communist China, but squashes the freedom of citizens in many of the world’s repressed countries.
The international coalition is calling for effective and immediate action to dismantle the Internet firewalls of the world’s closed societies. They are asking, “Was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s January 21st speech on the Internet freedom only an exercise in political rhetoric or a serious call for action?”
The coalition’s letter echoes one sent to Secretary Clinton on January 20, 2010 by U.S. Senators Sam Brownback, Edward P. Casey, Jr., Edward Kauffman, Jon Kyl, and Arlen Specter who question the State Department’s past actions in awarding funds appropriated for counter-censorship programs and technology. They also urge the State Department to award currently available funds according to merit based criteria as outlined in the Senators’ letter and not on irrelevant political biases.
Speakers at the press conference include Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Michael Horowitz, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer, Iranian Green Revolution leader Mariam Memarsadeghi, Initiatives for China founder and president Yang Jianli, Dr. David Tian of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, and other pro-democracy leaders from Vietnam, Cuba, Burma, Laos, North Korea, and Syria.
A questions and answer period for participants and reporters will follow.