Me as FPA President Editorial for FPA Newsletter.
New Visa Requirements threaten Our Members
The Foreign Press Association was born in New York at the end of the First World War, and
also stuck around for the Second. Its members have chronicled epidemics, depressions and
recessions, witnessed the birth of radio, TV - and the Internet. However now there is an
impending "Perfect Storm," putting in doubt our raison d’ être. If the foreign press are not
allowed in the country, and can only report with ICE looking over their shoulders, what is our
role? It might seem alarmist, but soon journalists will be restricted to 240 day stays, with
visa renewals dependent on capricious bureaucrats.
Despising foreigners and detesting journalists are two common traits in the US
administration, and together they catch the FPA and its members in crossfire. The decision
makers who frame the rules based on these views often seem a bit ignorant or stupid as
well, and so either do not see the practical consequences of their prejudices – or do not
care. Only people who have never seen how journalism works, nor how the US immigration
apparatus operates, could have produced such ill-considered proposals.
The proposed immigration rules are wrong in principle and impossible to apply fairly and
consistently, not least when combined with the notorious inefficiency of the US Customs and
Immigration Service. It means that a foreign journalist entering the country on a 240-day
stay must apply immediately for an extension to have any chance of a decision before the
stay is over. And our legal advisor tells us that having a pending, unresolved, application
may allow ICE to deem the applicant out of status.
One does not want to speak ill of the host country, but ICE does not stand out on either the
human rights or the human resources front. Its attachment to freedom of speech is not
immediately apparent and it is likely that any reporters detained will have their work
evaluated by thoroughly biased inspectors.
When I arrived in the US in 1989, brandishing an I visa despite a history of protests about
Vietnam and South Africa, and a portfolio of articles on similar subjects, I was not
particularly biased in favor of the country! However, working with the staff at the Foreign
Press Center in New York was a revelation. Even though many of them were Republican
political appointees, they were scrupulously balanced and helpful, friendly and forbearing in
their approach. They arranged visits and briefings and were unfailingly helpful even to some
of our Warsaw Pact colleagues who were clearly what one could only call spies. They took
the First Amendment thing seriously, but also their role as advocates for the American way
of life. Mistreating a correspondent on suspicion of being KGB would have sent bad signals
to the rest of the press corps.Recessions, the Internet, the moribundity of print media and gross commercialization of
broadcasters have changed the scene. What was once a convivial, almost collective
profession has become for many a 24-hour treadmill with increased financial, and now
residential, insecurity.
Although there are dark clouds ahead, I am not calling "Abandon ship!" We need each other
now more than ever. As when these restrictive proposals were hauled up the mast last time,
the FPA is at the forefront along with sister organizations in the fight-back.
All journalists should be lobbying US representatives with our concerns, and enlisting their
home governments to raise the issues, as many have successfully already done. Later in
the newsletter we detail some of what has been done, the threats ahead, and what you can
do to help. If you hear of any news on the issue, or cases of colleagues being affected,
please let us know!
And please continue to support the FPA and work with us to provide sociability and
solidarity for each other. Ask others to join! Vive La Resistance!
Ian Williams, FPA President
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