Swordsmyth
03-28-2018, 05:52 PM
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate whether Al Jazeera, the news outlet connected to the Qatari government, should register with the Justice Department as an agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). This will have broad implications for the First Amendment, our access to dissenting opinions, and even how the rest of the world views us.
The lawmakers include Representatives Josh Gottheimer, (D-NJ), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), and 16 other House members. Senator Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, also signed the letter to Sessions. The letter claims (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/lawmakers-push-for-u-s-review-of-al-jazeera-as-foreign-agent) Al Jazeera “directly undermines American interests” and broadcasts “anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel” material. If forced to register, Al Jazeera would join (https://efile.fara.gov/pls/apex/f?p=181:1:0::::P1_DISPLAY:) Russian outlets RT and Radio Sputnik, Japan’s Cosmomedia, the Korean Broadcasting System, and China Daily as acknowledged foreign state propaganda outlets. The DOJ has also been asked (https://sputniknews.com/world/201801171060817755-us-china-foreign-agent/) to look into a range of other Chinese media.
Ironically, the bipartisan request to force Al Jazeera to register comes amid a controversy (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/al-jazeera-israel-documentary-congress_us_5a9990e0e4b0a0ba4ad2e809) over the network’s filming of a documentary critical of pro-Israel lobbying in the United States. For that exposé, the network used an undercover operative to secure footage revealing possibly illegal interactions between advocacy groups and lawmakers.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (https://www.fara.gov/) was never intended to regulate journalism. In fact, the legislation includes finely worded exemptions (https://www.fara.gov/indx-act.html#611d) for journalists, scholars, artists, and the like, who are not required to announce themselves as “agents of a foreign principal” regardless of what they do. The law was created in 1938 in response to German (https://sunlightfoundation.com/2014/05/07/foreign-lobbying-regulation-a-history/) propaganda, specifically Nazi officials and those they employed who were delivering pacifist speeches in then-neutral America to organize sympathetic German Americans. By requiring those working for the Nazis to register and report their finances and spending, U.S. counterespionage authorities could more easily keep track of their activities.
FARA doesn’t even prohibit straight up propagandizing, though it does seek to limit the influence of foreign agents by labeling their work, apparently to help out Americans who otherwise would not be able to tell the difference on their own. The law specifically says (https://www.fara.gov/indx-act.html#611d) that “disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents.” Indeed, the Atlantic Council claims (http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/RT_Foreign_Agent_web_0831.pdf) these actions “do not suppress freedom of speech; instead, it serves the First Amendment by supplementing information available to the public.”
Here’s a use of FARA in line with the law’s original intent: the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, whose job is to lobby Americans on behalf of a foreign government—in this case, to take vacations in Abu Dhabi—is a FARA registrant. That way, when the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority says they have decent beaches you should visit, you know who is up to what. Other typical registrants might include an American lawyer hired by Saudi Arabia to lobby (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/u-s-saudi-lobby-washington-in-overdrive-for-crown-prince-salman-mbs-visit-yemen-qatar-trump/) Congress in favor of more arms sales. Being a foreign agent is very legal and very popular with former congresspeople and government bureaucrats; you just need to announce who your employer is.
But FARA can also serve a more nefarious purpose: as a catch-22 prosecution (http://thehill.com/homenews/360110-rt-chooses-registering-as-foreign-agent-in-us-over-criminal-case) (a “compliance statute”) for those the U.S. wants to declare as foreign agents but who resist. Once the feds want to taint you as a foreign agent, you either agree and register or face jail time.
That is what happened in the cases of RT and Radio Sputnik. Following the 2016 election, frightened officials demanded that the Russian organizations register as propaganda agents. RT’s editor-in-chief maintained her network was an independent news outlet, but chose (http://thehill.com/homenews/360110-rt-chooses-registering-as-foreign-agent-in-us-over-criminal-case) to comply rather than face criminal proceedings, adding “we congratulate the American freedom of speech and all those who still believe in it.” Critics then swung (https://www.thecipherbrief.com/foreign-agents-registration-act-clearing-fog-information-war) RT’s snarky comment on free speech into “proof” that it unfairly criticizes America.
The use of FARA to allow the government to declare which foreign media outlets produce “news” and which produce “fake news” and propaganda is “a shift in how the law has been applied in recent decades,” said (https://www.thenation.com/article/rt-was-forced-to-register-as-a-foreign-agent/) the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We’re uncomfortable with governments’ deciding what constitutes journalism or propaganda.”
More at: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-al-jazeera-really-a-foreign-agent-fara-rt-sputnik/
The lawmakers include Representatives Josh Gottheimer, (D-NJ), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), and 16 other House members. Senator Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, also signed the letter to Sessions. The letter claims (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/lawmakers-push-for-u-s-review-of-al-jazeera-as-foreign-agent) Al Jazeera “directly undermines American interests” and broadcasts “anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel” material. If forced to register, Al Jazeera would join (https://efile.fara.gov/pls/apex/f?p=181:1:0::::P1_DISPLAY:) Russian outlets RT and Radio Sputnik, Japan’s Cosmomedia, the Korean Broadcasting System, and China Daily as acknowledged foreign state propaganda outlets. The DOJ has also been asked (https://sputniknews.com/world/201801171060817755-us-china-foreign-agent/) to look into a range of other Chinese media.
Ironically, the bipartisan request to force Al Jazeera to register comes amid a controversy (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/al-jazeera-israel-documentary-congress_us_5a9990e0e4b0a0ba4ad2e809) over the network’s filming of a documentary critical of pro-Israel lobbying in the United States. For that exposé, the network used an undercover operative to secure footage revealing possibly illegal interactions between advocacy groups and lawmakers.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (https://www.fara.gov/) was never intended to regulate journalism. In fact, the legislation includes finely worded exemptions (https://www.fara.gov/indx-act.html#611d) for journalists, scholars, artists, and the like, who are not required to announce themselves as “agents of a foreign principal” regardless of what they do. The law was created in 1938 in response to German (https://sunlightfoundation.com/2014/05/07/foreign-lobbying-regulation-a-history/) propaganda, specifically Nazi officials and those they employed who were delivering pacifist speeches in then-neutral America to organize sympathetic German Americans. By requiring those working for the Nazis to register and report their finances and spending, U.S. counterespionage authorities could more easily keep track of their activities.
FARA doesn’t even prohibit straight up propagandizing, though it does seek to limit the influence of foreign agents by labeling their work, apparently to help out Americans who otherwise would not be able to tell the difference on their own. The law specifically says (https://www.fara.gov/indx-act.html#611d) that “disclosure of the required information facilitates evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign agents.” Indeed, the Atlantic Council claims (http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/RT_Foreign_Agent_web_0831.pdf) these actions “do not suppress freedom of speech; instead, it serves the First Amendment by supplementing information available to the public.”
Here’s a use of FARA in line with the law’s original intent: the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, whose job is to lobby Americans on behalf of a foreign government—in this case, to take vacations in Abu Dhabi—is a FARA registrant. That way, when the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority says they have decent beaches you should visit, you know who is up to what. Other typical registrants might include an American lawyer hired by Saudi Arabia to lobby (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/u-s-saudi-lobby-washington-in-overdrive-for-crown-prince-salman-mbs-visit-yemen-qatar-trump/) Congress in favor of more arms sales. Being a foreign agent is very legal and very popular with former congresspeople and government bureaucrats; you just need to announce who your employer is.
But FARA can also serve a more nefarious purpose: as a catch-22 prosecution (http://thehill.com/homenews/360110-rt-chooses-registering-as-foreign-agent-in-us-over-criminal-case) (a “compliance statute”) for those the U.S. wants to declare as foreign agents but who resist. Once the feds want to taint you as a foreign agent, you either agree and register or face jail time.
That is what happened in the cases of RT and Radio Sputnik. Following the 2016 election, frightened officials demanded that the Russian organizations register as propaganda agents. RT’s editor-in-chief maintained her network was an independent news outlet, but chose (http://thehill.com/homenews/360110-rt-chooses-registering-as-foreign-agent-in-us-over-criminal-case) to comply rather than face criminal proceedings, adding “we congratulate the American freedom of speech and all those who still believe in it.” Critics then swung (https://www.thecipherbrief.com/foreign-agents-registration-act-clearing-fog-information-war) RT’s snarky comment on free speech into “proof” that it unfairly criticizes America.
The use of FARA to allow the government to declare which foreign media outlets produce “news” and which produce “fake news” and propaganda is “a shift in how the law has been applied in recent decades,” said (https://www.thenation.com/article/rt-was-forced-to-register-as-a-foreign-agent/) the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We’re uncomfortable with governments’ deciding what constitutes journalism or propaganda.”
More at: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-al-jazeera-really-a-foreign-agent-fara-rt-sputnik/