Publishers are alarmed by a plan to limit the duration of visas for foreign journalists working in the United States.
In August, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it
would reduce the visa lengths for international students, journalists and exchange visitors to eight months so it could vet and oversee these individuals.
“By shortening the visa
term to eight months and requiring that the Department of Homeland Security review ‘the content that the foreign information media representative is covering in the United
States’ to determine eligibility for an extension, the Proposed Rule may entangle DHS in the supervision of journalism,” says the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press in a
letter also signed by The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Dow Jones & Company Inc. and the New/Media Alliance, among other organizations.
Moreover, the change may “chill reporting
on the United States, especially reporting in the public interest about the government elements responsible for extension approvals; may invite other nations to retaliate against U.S. journalists; and
lacks adequate justification,” the letter states.
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In addition, commenters agree that “the proposed revisions create the risk that other nations will react by restricting the
ability of U.S. journalists to work abroad,” it adds.
The proposed rule “fails to cite even anecdotal reasons—to say nothing of representative data—to think that I
visa-holders pose a risk to national security or any other government interest.”
What do the publishers want to see?
At a minimum, they urge the DHS to ”revise the Proposed
Rule with respect to I visas, to ensure that the I visa program cannot be used to retaliate against foreign journalists or chill newsgathering and reporting; to ensure that the visa term is long
enough to support the reporting activities for which I visas are intended; and to ensure that it will not be cited by other countries to impair the international operations of domestic news
organizations,” the groups say.