President Barack Obama signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act into law Monday, with the bill intended to increase the scrutiny of nations where press freedom is being suppressed.
Specifically, the act would require the State Department to include a more in-depth examination of press freedoms in different countries in the department's Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
"I am very proud to be able to sign the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, a piece of legislation that sends a strong signal about our core values when it comes to the freedom of the press," Obama said in the Oval Office.
He added, "What this act does is it sends a strong message from the United States government and from the State Department that we are paying attention to how other governments are operating when it comes to the press."
The legislation is named after Daniel Pearl, a journalist who worked for the Wall Street Journal until he was murdered by extremists in Pakistan shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"I particularly want to thank the Pearl family, who have been so outspoken and so courageous in sending a clear message that, despite Daniel's death, his vision of a well-informed citizenry that is able to make choices and hold governments accountable, that that legacy lives on," Obama said.
The president added that, without this kind of attention being paid to how the press is treated, "countries and governments feel that they can operate against the press with impunity. And we want to send a message that they can't."
It will be interesting to see what, if any, impact the State Department's reports on press freedom have on the administration's already-strained relations with Israel, which is frequently accused of violations of press freedom, including the Israel Defense Forces targeting Palestinian journalists.
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