CV NEWS FEED // Two Republican congressmen recently expressed their opposition to the United States joining a global pandemic agreement because its text currently jeopardizes freedom of speech.
The U.S. Department of State is reportedly considering having the United States join the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement, according to Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
On May 17, the two congressmen sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing concern that the WHO Agreement “would encourage censorship of so-called ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation.’”
The WHO Agreement is intended to “prevent, prepare, and respond to pandemics,” the congressmen wrote, quoting a proposal for the Agreement.
The reports that the United States may join the WHO Agreement, wrote the congressmen, “raise serious concerns given that certain provisions within the WHO Agreement may contravene the First Amendment.”
“For example,” the congressmen continued,
the first six drafts of the WHO Agreement each included a section or article requiring parties to the agreement to “identify,” “combat,” “counteract,” “tackle,” and/or “prevent” so-called “misinformation,” “disinformation,” or “false news” relating to pandemics, vaccines, or other topics on which self proclaimed public health experts want to restrict debate.
The WHO Agreement is currently in its seventh draft and does not directly mention “misinformation,” according to the congressmen. However, they wrote, this draft’s preamble “adds a new reference to an alleged need to ‘prevent misinformation, disinformation[,] and stigmatization.’”
“The State Department’s consideration of the WHO Agreement is even more troubling in light of the fact that the Biden Administration has been one of the worst and most consistent purveyors of COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation,” they added:
In addition to spreading misinformation, the Biden Administration also worked relentlessly to coerce social media companies, and even bookstores, to censor true information as uncovered by the Committee [on the Judiciary] and Select Subcommittee [on the Weaponization of the Federal Government].
The congressmen requested that the State Department provide the House Committee on the Judiciary, which Jordan chairs, all documents and communications that the Department’s personnel sent to each other, the WHO, or any third parties regarding “the creation, drafting, development, consideration, or implementation of the WHO Agreement or any amendments to the International Health Regulations,” by May 31.
The congressmen also requested the Department schedule a briefing with the Committee about the WHO Agreement, as well as any amendments to the International Health Regulations, by that date.
In a May 20 news release, the legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom International praised Massie and Jordan for fighting censorship and protecting the First Amendment.
“Whether the treaty succeeds or fails is for Member States to decide,” ADF International Legal Counsel Sean Nelson stated in the news release. “The United States, and all WHO Member States, should carefully evaluate the human rights implications of the treaty in their deliberations.”
Nelson said that his organization commends the congressmen for demanding that the Department be transparent and for defending Americans’ freedom of speech.
“The United States should never promote censorship and should be the strongest advocate for free speech around the world,” Nelson remarked.
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