Copyright Lani Russell Lewter

REMARKS BY NABJ PRESIDENT BRYAN MONROE TO
THE UN GLOBAL YOUTH SUMMITT
October 29, 2006
New York City

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary General. Thank you, Mr. President, esteemed delegates and dignitaries. And thank you, youth leaders from around the globe for having us here.

I applaud the United Nations, its member states, the Secretary General and my friend, NABJ member Djibril Diallo, director of the New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace, for pulling together this exquisite and historic gathering of the worlds youth leaders.

This year also marks a high point in the ongoing partnership between NABJ and the UN, a relationship that has exposed dozens of black journalists to international coverage, and helped send 11 NABJ members to Tanzania and Zanzibar this May to shine a light on malaria in Africa.

As president, I bring you greetings from the nearly 4,000 members of the National Association of Black Journalists, the largest and oldest media organization of color in America.

I also bring you greetings from our partner organizations in UNITY: Journalists of Color. Along with NABJ, the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association represent nearly 10,000 of the best television, print, radio and online journalists this nation has to offer. I am proud to call them colleagues and friends.

What makes me most proud are the young folks, young folks like you...and like the student journalists we have here who have been covering this historic event in print, on the radio and online. Would our student journalists please stand up(APPLAUSE)

These students and many of you from around the globe are literally changing the way this planet works. For instance, look around. According to a study from the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism, young people like you, in their teens and early 20s: Will rarely if ever read a printed newspaper Will never own a land-line telephone Will not watch TV on someone else's schedule
(DVRs, TIVO) See mobile phones as your primary tool for data, text message, e-commerce, networking and, oh yes, and voice Your communities whether they be real or virtual are the center your universe
 Are less likely to trust traditional sources, expertsmore likely to trust peers (online or offline) And, well, E-mail is something your parents do


Yes, for your generation, there is no such thing as New Media. For you, its just Media. These days, you have made technology The Great Equalizer.

The press today will bear little resemblance to the press 5 or 10 years from now. When a coup happens in Bangkok, within seconds you get a video on your cell phone or on YouTube. When an explosion rocks the subway in London, within moments it is on your Sidekick in Los Angeles.

Today, you are just as likely to engage in a real-time conversation with a friend in Bangladesh as you are with a friend in Boston all via SMS and text messaging. The medium doesn't matter any more. It is all about the information.

And information will always win.

No matter how hard some move to restrict access to a free press, restrict the free flow of ideas, restrict the reporting of news, in the end, information will always find a way.

Individuals, particularly those armed with the latest technology, will find a way to get to the information, the ideas that matter in their lives. Like a mighty river, the free flow of information will find a way to persist, unstoppable, no matter what is put in its path.

From the Gutenberg Bible to the offset press to my Palm Treo PDA, as new technologies have emerged to help the dissemination of ideas and information, some government, some authority, some individual has always tried to shut it down.

Whether it is a crackdown on independent newspapers in Zimbabwe or restrictions on Internet access in China, somehow, information always, somehow, finds a way to break free.

In Moscow, a journalist is shot, but the information lives on. In New York, a reporter is thrown in jail, but the story only grows larger. No matter what is thrown in the way, information survives.

Even though, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 42 journalists have been killed around the world in 2006, their lives, their stories, their ideas, the information they championed still lives. Truth cannot be silenced.

And that's the way it should be. A free and unfettered press is critical to the development of civil societies, and crucial as the primary tool to inform liberty and defeat tyranny.

Information, truth should always win.

But it is also critical who is out there gathering, reporting, recording, editing and disseminating that information, who is out there speaking truth to power.

For instance, here in America, the voices telling the story of America too often they don't reflect the rich diversity of America. Too often, people who look like me are still not at the table when decisions about coverage and content in the news media are made. And, in the process, our democracy suffers. Our liberty suffers. We must fight that status quo, fight the power.

But remember, as journalist and statesman Frederick Douglass said, Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

So, whether you are a young journalist, speaking truth to power, or a young diplomat, who uses truth to promote peace, you will nevertheless be in for a fight. You will, however, have the advantage of youth, passion and technology.

Finally, let me remind you that your journey ahead whether you strive to excel in journalism, or justice, politics or public service that journey will likely be tough. But ultimately, it will be rewarding.

But along the way, you will face many people who may tell you that you cant do it, you're not good enough, you wont make it. Let me be one of the first to tell you they will be wrong.

Quincy Jones, legendary music and film producer and worldwide humanitarian, told me the other day about a phrase that he and the late entertainer Ray Charles the two grew up together in Seattle would say when the opinions of others got them down, when the struggles of being young and black almost became too much. They would say to each other: Not one drop of my self worth depends on your acceptance of me. That is so true.

Yes, your journey will be hard, but it will also be powerfully rewarding.

I leave you with an old African proverb on the values of working hard, something that has given me strength: "Not everyone who chased the Zebra, caught it, but he who caught it, chased it."

Thank you and have a great summit!

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