This is obviously not a very well thought out policy, and in the interest of public transparency and democracy-should be changed.
Foreign populations who are held captive by their governments should not be further enabled by the State Department. Nor should information-starved citizens be forced by America, of all things, to have their news conditional on the approval of their autocratic regimes.
"In order for foreign journalists to get State Department credentials,
the journalists must not only have a letter in hand from the
organization for which they work, but they also need a cover letter from
the press attaché from their country’s embassy in Washington....There is no waiver for journalists from such countries who would use
their residence in the United States to report critically about their
home countries"
This seems to me a non-partisan issue that would free up information in a very positive way to millions of people potentially. I'm not sure what the Canadian policy is, but it's certainly an interesting question and I will look it up.
Read more at Commentary here.
