Opinion: US diplomacy’s valuable role promoting press freedom threatened
World Press Freedom Day, observed on May 3, honors this UN universal human right.
Printed in this newspaper's Opinion pages is “The First Amendment” spelling out the basic freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America: freedoms of religion, speech and the press, and rights peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Most American news media and many international journalistic organizations hail this First Amendment Freedom of the Press as fundamental to their mission.
Publishing (by carbon-paper copies and then on mimeograph machines) my first newspapers as a schoolgirl in mid-1950s third and fourth grades in Asheville, I was excited learning freedom of the press was part of my country’s foundational ideals. Later in civics classes, where we were taught responsibilities as citizens in a democracy, I was inspired hearing my teachers hail press freedom among the rights in our Constitution’s First Amendment.
That was during the Cold War when we learned that people living under the U.S.S.R. didn’t have such freedom of the press. The USA’s overseas broadcasting networks, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, tools of American soft diplomacy, then became and have remained vital news sources for people in many countries.
Much later upon joining the U.S. diplomatic corps after years as a journalist, I was thrilled to discover that promoting our First Amendment rights, including press freedom, was among U.S. foreign policy goals and, thus, part of my work in public diplomacy. American embassies have for decades promoted our First Amendment Rights to help build the positive image of this country.
Once while working as U.S. press attache’ in Pakistan, when the country’s president had imposed martial law and reportedly authorized destruction of an independent Power99 Radio station in the capital for its reporting news critical of the government’s actions, I arranged for our American Ambassador to view the wreckage first hand and speak out about it. Our public visit meeting with the journalists at the station helped encourage lifting martial law. That was late 2007. Earlier this year 2025, I received a surprise message on social media from a Pakistani identifying himself as a reporter at the long-ago smashed radio station. He was writing to say he still remembered with appreciation our American diplomatic visit promoting press freedom.
The long-term, positive power of such diplomatic outreach worldwide is immeasurable. The U.S., despite all its historic and contemporary flaws, has often been acknowledged as a leading advocate for promoting freedom of the press. Democratic leaders and journalists in many countries have looked to the U.S. for support in their struggles to achieve freedom of their news media and protection for their journalists.
Worldwide the U.S. has long been considered among the top defenders of freedom of the press. In recent years, however, the U.S. defense of this basic right at home has dropped in ranking, according to the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF)/Reporters Without Borders on the annual occasion of World Press Freedom Day.
Now, for unfathomable motives, the new U.S. administration has launched an assault to undermine the diplomatic benefits of promoting these ideal democratic values. The current U.S. government boasts it’s working to eradicate what were long applauded as basic American democratic gifts to the world: by halting U.S. support promoting democratic ideals and human rights, seeking to close VOA/RFE/RL broadcasting and U.S. libraries in far-flung corners of the globe, banning books, canceling U.S. embassies’ working subscriptions to essential news media, halting the public and cultural diplomacy work hosting press freedom training and support worldwide. Why? Regardless of motive and clearly a lack of understanding the role and value of diplomacy on the part of current leaders, the damage to the U.S. image now is devastating.
Promotion of American First Amendment values has played a valuable part of U.S. public and cultural diplomacy in winning friends and supporting democracy globally. Our First Amendment rights, including press freedom, are not only ideal values but also principles undergirded by constitutional law. Now we need to work more than ever at home and abroad to preserve freedom of the press and all the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment rights.
Elizabeth “Liz” Colton, an author, diplomat, educator, and Emmy Award winning journalist, currently teaches diplomacy and the media for UNITAR and partner international universities’ global courses. She also serves as board-chair of Reporters Sans Frontieres/Reporters Without Borders RSF-USA and as Diplomat & Journalist in Residence at Warren Wilson College.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: US diplomacy’s valuable role promoting press freedom threatened