Washington wants to pay legal fees for wrongfully prosecuted journalists abroad – Abc24.ma

The United States will provide financial assistance to journalists abroad who face legal proceedings as part of a campaign to support democracy around the world, according to the American Development Assistance Agency.

“We will offer to cover the costs necessary to avoid complaints of defamation and deter autocrats and oligarchs,” USAID director Samantha Power, herself a former journalist, said in a statement. Speech in Washington.

He said authoritarian powers were increasingly resorting to these “crude but effective tactics” by multiplying complaints to sabotage independent media and to eliminate information they did not want to see reported.

“As autocrats become more and more shrewd in their campaign to control and manipulate people, we must help leaders support a free and balanced global press to respond,” said former US ambassador he said. United in the United Nations.

He did not give details of the operation of this new “fund” set up by the government of President Joe Biden, and did not specify whether it would support journalists in countries allied with Washington.

The US president is scheduled to hold a virtual summit for democracy next month, one of his foreign policy priorities, to forge a united front against “autocracy” led by China. A meeting that seeks to be a break with his predecessor, Donald Trump, who regularly flirts with authoritarian leaders.

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