True North asks Chrystia Freeland why Malaysian censor was invited to media freedom conference
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode of the Media Freedom Summit, I sit down with Canadian Foreign Minister Chae-Mae Chua to discuss the importance of media freedom in the 21st century, the role of the UK government in promoting media freedom, and the role that ministers from other countries should play in this matter.
Transcript
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This morning you appeared on stage with Malaysian Communications Minister Singh Deo.
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Back in September, he took aim at the London-based publisher of Malaysia Today,
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saying that Malaysia needs to have online speech laws that actually are, in his words,
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extraterritorial, so able to prosecute outside of Malaysia.
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Do you think that squares with the tone and tenor of his participation in this conference and this conference itself?
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You know, something that we discussed at great length with the UK when it came to this conference
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and when it came to our approach to participation in the conference was,
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who are we speaking to and who should be involved?
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And there again, there is a difficult, there is a thoughtful balance that needs to be struck.
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I think all of us are very clear that some countries, you know, let me use North Korea as the obvious example,
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are beyond the pale when it comes to having a real discussion of media freedom.
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But I think all of us need to also appreciate that there is work for all of us to do.
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I met earlier today with a Jamaican foreign minister, a great friend of Canada's,
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and I congratulated her on the fact that Jamaica is number eight on the media freedom list.
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Canada is proud of our place at number 18, but we're behind Jamaica,
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I think that they're at 33, so we can be proud of that.
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But the point is that this is not meant to be a group of angels and a group of countries that are perfect.
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What it is meant to be is a group of countries that are, and not just the attendance,
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the attendance is open, and I'm actually quite happy to have people who don't believe in media freedom
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be here to listen to us and have an opportunity to hear why we think it's important.
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But in terms of the group of countries, for example, signing on to our media pledge,
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the group of countries on a stage, it's not meant to be a gathering of angels.
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It's meant to be a gathering of countries that sincerely appreciate the importance of media freedom
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and, crucially, sincerely believe in the value of working hard to get better.
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And I think in introducing the Malaysian minister,
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Secretary Hunt was very clear that that was the reason that the invitation had been extended to Malaysia.