WASHINGTON: The United States will offer funding to help journalists overseas survive frivolous lawsuits meant to silence them, as part of a campaign to support democracy, USAID chief Samantha Power announced on Thursday .
Democracies need to set rules"as autocrats grow savvier in their attempts to control and manipulate people", she said."We need to help support a free and fair global press to hold leaders to account." Critics will likely point to Washington's continued efforts to extradite from Britain the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who considers himself a journalist and faces the rest of his life in prison for the leak of classified US documents.
"If they can access those resources, that's the difference between being able to write the story to hold the corrupt mayor accountable or the corrupt police chief accountable or not potentially," she said.In wide-ranging remarks, Power also said that the United States would sharply increase how much assistance is channelled through groups on the ground.
The groups will carry out programs in areas that include fighting corruption, combating sexual violence and encouraging sustainable growth.