The Board believes the Summit is an opportunity for African leaders to acknowledge the link between a free press and the reduction of poverty, and to commit to firm actions that lead to good governance and economic and social progress.

The Board asks the President of the United States to encourage all African heads of state attending the U.S.-Africa Summit to:

• Heed the call by the Pan-African Parliament to adopt the Declaration of Table Mountain by repealing criminal defamation and insult laws and to set a free press higher on the agenda;
  
  
• Enact the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Resolution 169 calling for the repeal of criminal defamation;
  
  
• Release all journalists held in prison because of their work, including Golden Pen of Freedom laureates Eskinder Nega (Ethiopia) and Dawit Isaak (Eritrea).