Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I thank my good friend from California (Mr. Royce), the author of the House companion of this bill, for his leadership on this issue. Today I rise in strong support of the Senate bill, S. 3104, a bipartisan bill that deserves our prompt approval. I want to thank the gentleman from California, who has been working on this issue for a number of years. And as we know, Mr. Speaker, an unfettered and independent press is so vital to the maintenance of liberty that its protection was enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution. Tyranny cannot abide dissent. And the repressive regimes know that they cannot afford to allow the unregulated dissemination of information and ideas. People accustomed to thinking freely and speaking freely cannot be deterred from also living freely. These are the realities that drive our Nation's longstanding commitment to surrogate broadcasting, providing to oppressed societies the kind of news and information that local journalists would supply if they were allowed to operate freely. We can all recall the important role that Radio Free Europe played in helping us to end the Cold War. For the past 14 years, its younger sibling, Radio Free Asia, has provided critical broadcasting in a neighborhood that contains some of the world's most antidemocratic regimes: North Korea, Burma, China, Vietnam, and Laos.…”