The Hill News

The silence was telling. Neither Secretary Hillary Clinton, nor Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Mike Posner mentioned it in either their written or oral remarks. It was hard to find clear evidence of it, too, in the Country Reports on Human Rights released (weeks later than usual) earlier this week by the State Department.

The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in May 2010 and it requires Foggy Bottom to deepen its reporting on press freedom conditions worldwide. Introduced two years ago by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the original legislation called for a separate press freedom report to congress. But legislators in both chambers later agreed to allow the requirements for more press freedom reporting to be incorporated into the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights.

The Committee to Protect Journalists backed the change. State ! Department officials had long made clear that demanding a separate report would only stretch thinner already straining resources. We agreed. But if the human rights reports released this week are any indication, Foggy Bottom’s first attempt at implementation of the Daniel Peal Act falls short of the language in the law.

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