American values

From Moscow, just a short note (because I am on the world's slowest so-called 54-mb network):

It's been fascinating in the last 24 hours to hear Thomas Jefferson quoted from the podium. Last night at the Moscow Music Theater, Russian TV personality Syatoslav Belza recited for 1,700 or so world press delegates Jefferson's famous claim that if presented the alternative between a government with no newspapers or newspapers with no government, he would choose the latter. Moscow mayor Yuri Luzkhov talked of the importance of the "fourth power" -- information -- and of the need for impartiality in the press.

Today WAN president Gavin O'Reilly challenged Russian president Vladimir Putin on charges that Russian leaders have been "reluctant to forgo control and influence over the media." Putin, for his part, pointed out that the discussion was taking place in the former grand meeting hall of the Communist Party and said that "without a free press, such large-scale change can be impossible." Putin went on to say that a free press must be not only free of government interference, but also free of oligarchical control, and cited the creation of some 53,000 periodicals and a wide variety of choice in the regional press.

As an American walking for the first time on Russian soil, it is striking how certain American values have spread throughout the world. We did not invent free expression, of course, but the protections embodied in the Constitution have served as a model. No nation is without the stain of transgressions against freedom of expression, including ours, but I am proud to be from a culture that has helped lead the world in this area.

Now we must muster the courage to stick with those convictions, and with the rest of the Bill of Rights.